For the artist Lola Lasurt (Barcelona, ​​1983), history plays a fundamental role. "I reactivate very specific episodes from the past," she states after winning the second Arco Antoni Vila Casas Prize with Vase and dove (For pictorial curatorship I). It's a painted frieze on draped canvas (hanging from a metal structure) displaying eight frames from the film with which Italian filmmaker Luciano Emmer documented Picasso's 1953 transformation of an ordinary vase into a series of peace doves. "I always work with archival, historical documentation, and painting the documents means doing a slow and meticulous analysis of what I'm researching," says Lasurt.

With a rather caustic sense of humor, the painter Ramon Calsina (1901-1992) used to say that he was born drawing, just as someone else might be born "hunchbacked," as his son Ramon recalled a few years ago. Thus, in addition to his artistic talent, another reason for his marginalization was his critical and introverted nature. For the more conservative public, he was too contemporary an artist. And for the more progressive, Calsina was too traditional. "He's an uncomfortable figure for many people because he's difficult to categorize," notes Bernat Puigdollers, artistic director of the Vila Casas Foundation, on the occasion of the exhibition of Calsina's drawings currently on display. in the Volart Spaces until March 15, which he also curated.

The life of the artist Silvia Gubern (Barcelona, ​​1941) changed after a serious car accident in Madrid, where she was going in 1987 to present the video to the Reina Sofía Museum. First death, which he had created in 1970 as part of the Grupo del Freso, and which is considered the first work of video art in the State. After the accident, Gubern moved to the countryside, to Llinars del Vallès, and began "a solitary journey," as the artist explains on the occasion of the exhibition dedicated to him by the Can Framis museum. Silvia Gubern - Splendor. Return to origin. "The loneliness was from the perspective of the art world, but not from that of the ordinary people who knew me," clarifies the artist, who is also known for having designed the logo for the Zeleste gallery.

The public service vocation of the pharmaceutical entrepreneur and patron Antoni Vila Casas (1930-2023) It was extraordinary. "I believe that if society has treated you well, you have to get along with society," Vila Casas affirmed. "I dedicate myself to supporting medical research and promoting contemporary Catalan artists, and in this way, I give back to society some of what it has given me." Now, this quote opens the revamped tour of his painting museum at Can Framis in Barcelona, ​​in a monographic space dedicated to his life and work, to remember him and introduce him to younger generations.

The Vila Casas Foundation wants to reach even more people, and starting this Friday it is promoting A new door to art, a new series of activities that will take place one Friday a month until November. The series begins this Friday at 5 p.m. at the Can Framis Museum in Barcelona with a yoga and meditation session led by Mysteria, and a screening of the documentary about urban art in Barcelona.BCN rise & fall (with the collaboration of the Mecal festival) and the performance Floor Skin Wall, led by Anxe Faraldo and Haize Lizarazu. There will also be a yoga and creativity session by Sansyoga and a Playmodes workshop, where adults and children can discover and familiarize themselves with an audiovisual instrument: the sonograph. The day will conclude with a live podcast by Gent de Merda and concerts by Alosa and Gregotechno. "This initiative was born from the conviction that art is a universal heritage and a powerful tool to connect us with the world around us, reflect on society, and enrich our daily lives," say sources from the foundation. Admission for each day is €10 (€5 for reduced-price tickets), except for admission on July 18, which will be free.

The exhibition by Joana Cera (Barcelona, ​​​​1965) that the Vila Casas Foundation has organized at the Blanquerna Cultural Center is a surprise and an oasis. In the middle of Madrid, the works of this artist evoke nature and ancestral knowledge with symbols such as the sun and the snake. The sculptures and installations on display recall a certain idea of ​​alchemy, as if they were between this world and another, or if they could be transformed from one moment to the next. The works of Cera, who defines herself as a conceptual artist, are imbued with a very personal mysticism. "In Joana Cera's work we find the will to overcome dualisms to reach a synthesis," says Natàlia Chocarro, the director of external projects for the foundation and the curator of the exhibition, whose inauguration was attended by the Minister of Culture, Sònia Hernández Almodóvar. "A synthesis between the human and the metaphysical, between the telluric and the cosmic, the physical and the intangible," she emphasizes.

The Vila Casas Foundation has an increasingly prominent role in the State, thanks to the exhibitions of the artists in its collection that it organizes in museums such as the Lázaro Galdiano Museum in Madrid and the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporáneo (CGAC) in Santiago de Compostela, in a program called Puntos de Fuga. To further enhance this, the foundation organizes a prize within Arco, of which the winner has just been announced: the Catalan artist of Peruvian origin Lúa Coderch (Iquitos, Peru, 1982), represented by the Àngels Barcelona gallery. The award includes the acquisition of a work and the organization of an exhibition at the Can Framis museum.

The Vila Casas Foundation has an increasingly prominent role in the State, thanks to the exhibitions of the artists in its collection that it organizes in museums such as the Lázaro Galdiano Museum in Madrid and the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporáneo (CGAC) in Santiago de Compostela, in a program called Puntos de Fuga. To further enhance it, the foundation organizes an award within Arco, the ARCO Antoni Vila Casas award, of which the winner has just been announced: the Catalan artist of Peruvian origin Lúa Coderch (Iquitos, Peru, 1982), represented by the Àngels Barcelona gallery. The award includes the acquisition of a work and the organization of an exhibition at the Can Framis museum.