The artist who wanted to wrap Columbus in 2,000 meters of pink fabric

BarcelonaThe Bulgarian-born artist Christo (1935-2020) said that his projects to pack monuments such as the Pont Neuf in Paris and the Reichstag in Berlin were "a cry for artistic freedom," that they had a "nomadic" quality and that "they come and sell and leave forever." They were, he said, a source of "joy and beauty." "Like any genuine work of art, they have no purpose: they are not a message, they are not a symbol, they are just art," asserted the artist, who always worked together with his wife, Jeanne-Claude (1935-2009). Be that as it may, Christo and Jeanne-Claude were unable to carry out their project to pack the Columbus monument in Barcelona with 2,000 meters of pink fabric, as the Barcelona gallery Prats Nogueras Blanchard (Méndez Nuñez, 14) at an exhibition of his unrealized projects.

The project began in 1975, but when Pasqual Margall gave him permission in 1984, Christo gave up because he had lost his enthusiasm and because he believed his art had evolved during those nine years. Even so, as can be seen in some of the monument projects on display, the mayor of Madrid, Enrique Tierno Galván, also unsuccessfully offered him the opportunity to package the Puerta de Alcalá. "Christo and Jeanne-Claude said that their unrealized projects remained in a purer state because they didn't have to go through all the bureaucracy," says gallery owner Patricia de Muga, who with this exhibition continues the relationship that her father, Joan de Muga (1946-2020), had with Christo and Jeanne-Clau. In fact, the couple's only work in Spain was packing the old Joan Prats gallery on Rambla de Catalunya in 1979.

In addition to the Barcelona project, the exhibition, organized by the artists' foundation, includes a series of drawings and collages, from projects including Tokyo, a wall on the Suez Canal made from 50,000 drums, the packing of the MoMA and two New York skyscrapers, as well as the Jet de Eau in Geneva and the Ponte Sant'Angelo in Rome. It's striking that the artists included samples of materials and technical data, and some of them are precious in character. As for prices, they range from €80,000 for a small collage from a project to cover the Arkansas River to €600,000 for a model of the Teatro Nuovo in Spoleto.

This exhibition is one of more than twenty in the 11th edition of the Barcelona Gallery Weekend, which runs until Sunday, although the exhibitions will be open longer. Organized by the ArtBarcelona association, it features more than fifty national and international artists in 24 contemporary and modern art galleries in Barcelona and Hospitalet de Llobregat.

Another of the outstanding exhibitions is that of Rogelio López Cuenca at the angels gallery barcelona (Painter Fortuny, 27). PI©A$$O™ It includes a selection of works based on or inspired by others by the Malaga-born artist that López, known for his criticism of the Picasso phenomenon in cities such as Málaga and A Coruña and the commercialization of the artist, presented at the request of the Ministry of Culture in various museums across Spain during the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Picasso's death. Among dozens of laudatory exhibitions, López's, and a few others, were a critical exercise.

"The Picasso phenomenon is currently studied more within the spheres of marketing than in those of art," López warns. "It's not just about the character, but Picasso is the paradigm of this model of the brilliant artist who sacrifices everything for his work. It's about what an artist is." Furthermore, he emphasizes Picasso as an icon of patriarchy. "This phenomenon also explains the absence of great female artists, because this brilliant artist needs to dedicate his entire life to his career, and he needs someone to look after him. He needs these kinds of characters who remain in the shadows, while women have traditionally been required to form families and take care of the children, as happened with the sister."

From the Ebro to Africa

The SELTZ by Ritter Ferrer gallery (Balmes, 54), which opened its doors in April, is participating in Gallery Weeked with a double program consisting of Waterfalls, by photographer Cristina de Middel, and No title, by Iván Forcadell (Alcanar, 1993). "I'm more than you think, and that's what I like," says Iván Forcadell among his abstract paintings, drawings, collages and ceramics, where vivid colors that can refer to the domestic universe coexist with expressionist gestures and a pop element of photos and illustrations that he finds in "speculation" markets where the work arises. Who is the man who appears in an old photograph? It could be "The bus driver,either Paco the whore", as the artist says. "I have dedicated myself to rescuing anonymous people, abandoned people who, like me, or like the vast majority of the population, will go through life as just another person. It's something of a reality today, in which we constantly encounter a hodgepodge of images and information," the artist explains.

As for the photographs by De Middel, president of the Magnum agency, they are a selection of the five series, both documentary and fiction, that she has dedicated to Africa. With these photographs, she has challenged the stereotypes that weigh down the image of the continent. "They are five attempts to understand Africa, to share the questions I have had about the continent since the beginning, and since I began in the more artistic field and left photojournalism," says Cristina de Middel, best known for the series Afronauts"Even when I was in photojournalism, I was always very intrigued by the relationship the continent had with photography, because it's a very photographed continent, where there are many stereotypes, many... There's the photographic safari: photography and Africa are linked in a way that's very interesting to me, with a lot of history, like a lot of history, a history that tells many things."

Art as a game

The recovery in recent years of the artist and poet Mari Chordà It has been a great act of justice. After exhibitions in spaces such as the Mayoral gallery and the Macba, gallery owner and curator Àngels de la Mota is now making an unusual proposal at the Chiquita Room gallery (Villarroel, 25), bringing her works into dialogue with those of Italian artist and designer Bruno Munari in an exhibition entitled Lullaby to wake up a girl.

Both artists never met, but they share the fact that their works are meant to be played with. "As artists, Munari and Chordà considered play a fundamental aspect of child development and used their works to bring art closer to young audiences, fostering their creativity, their emotional universe, and their ability to interact with the world," says Àngels de la Mota. "They understood play as an essential learning tool that also erases boundaries. Interactive works that invite us to play, experiment, and, in the best of cases, to create something of our own."

It also features a duo of female artists the Bombon Projects gallery (Trafalgar, 53): Sculptor Eva Fàbregas (Barcelona, ​​1988) debuts a new collection of works, and a set of drawings by the visionary artist and medium Josefa Tolrà (1880-1959) is also on display. This is the first time her works have been put on sale. The exhibition of Tolrà's drawings is part of the new FLASH section, made up of nine exhibition proposals that can only be visited between this Thursday and Sunday.

The strength of committed artists

Another gallery featuring an artist duo is DNA Gallery (Mallorca, 205), in this case with a strong political character. With the title of Glass ceiling / These machines kill fascism, Regina José Galindo (Guatemala City, 1974) investigates through performance, video and photography the notion of work associated with female labor inequality, and Avelino Sala (Gijón, 1972), addresses the inequality associated with colonialism and war.

Also committed, the Argentine artist and activist Marcelo Brodsky (Buenos Aires, 1954) exhibits in the Zielinsky Gallery (Merchant Passage, 10) Traces of violence, with some of his most recent works consisting of historical photographs documenting the genocide in Namibia when it was still a German colony in Africa, intervened with watercolors and wax pencils.

In the field of painting, Octavi Arrizabalaga (Palo Alto, California, 1988), known as Aryz, makes his debut in the Senda gallery (Trafalgar, 32) with a series of large-format oil paintings that engage in a dialogue with the great masters of painting who have influenced him. The collection is a clear statement of intent, as Aryz seeks to be recognized beyond his role as an urban artist.

Among the exhibitions this Gallery Weekend, the Mayoral gallery (Consell de Cent, 286) is an exception with a collective exhibition. The Living Coin [The living currency], curated by the artist Pedro G. Romero, includes works by artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mari Chordà, Salvador Dalí, Jean Dubuffet, Eulalia Grau, Pablo Picasso, José Pérez Ocaña, Marria Pratts, Ugo Rondinone, Antonio Saura, Niki de Saint Phalle.