Barcelona's MACBA opens the Francesc Torres installation
Barcelona's regeneration continues to create a sense of valuable cultural places for both city inhabitants and the international visitor.
The Museu D'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) sits in El Raval, a working class district of winding alleyways, cafes and palm trees which is an area that requires on-going regenerative attention. However, the museum represents a modern outward looking approach that not only creates a cultural destination for city inhabitants and tourists, but puts the city on the the wider international map for contemporary art excellence. It celebrates the best of Catalan art while displaying big-name Spanish and international artists.
We interviewed the gallery Director, Ferran Barenblit, who described the importance of its' existence for Barcelona:
MACBA has just opened an exhibition showing the Catalan artist, Francesc Torres' archive of objects collected during his life. 'The Hemetic Bell, Space for a Non-Transferable Anthropology', is an installation of more than 3,500 objects including toys and images donated permanently to the museum's collection.
It reflects the spirit of the cabinet of curiosities or 'Wunderkammer' of 16th century Europe. MACBA says the artist is a pioneer of the language of multimedia installation, critically reflecting on the various manifestations of culture, politics and power, and this art work reveals the symbolic potential and the capacity of these objects to originate abstract thought.
Ten years ago, MACBA dedicated a retrospective to Torres called 'Da capo' for which he received the National Visual Arts Award.