Today is Tàpies. Ricard Bru – Nana Shimomura

Aquest event forma part de: Today It’s Tàpies

Organised by the Fundació Antoni Tàpies as part of the Tàpies Centenary Year, Today is Tàpies is a series of transgenerational and interdisciplinary conversations conducted and moderated by the cultural journalist Rita Roig (Terrassa, 1997). The aim is to interpret Tàpies’ texts as a starting point for reflecting on current issues such as ecology, the right to self-determination, interculturality and political commitment in art.

The words and ideas of the artist will be revisited during a series of thirteen sessions, with invited participants from different generations and diverse professional fields (culture, education, science, politics, environment, health and human sciences) helping to construct a polyphonic story that will be collected in the form of a podcast. Thanks to the collaboration of Catalunya Ràdio, the podcast will allow us to experience the generated knowledge in another format and in another context.

CHAPTER 6. RETURN TRIP: EAST AND WEST

Tàpies always saw in Eastern art a modernity akin to the essence of the avant-garde: a desire for change and rupture and an appreciation of process and imperfection were some of the aspects of Eastern culture that the artist was interested in following. The spirit of Eastern peoples coincided with Tàpies idea of art as something to stoke the viewer’s imagination, free the mind and fight alienation. Ricard Bru and Nana Shimomura will take Tàpies’ ideas as their starting point for reflecting on the validity of the East in the Western world today: from the fetishising gaze to the fans of Korean Pop, as well as the fascination with Japonisme in Catalan history.

PARTICIPANTS

Ricard Bru is a specialist in Japanese history and culture. He holds a PhD in Art History from the Universitat de Barcelona, and specialises in the links between Japanese art and Japonisme in Catalonia, Spain and Europe. He expanded his field of work with long research periods in Japan, especially at the International Research Centre for Japanese Studies, Kyoto. He has curated various exhibitions at the Museo del Prado, Museu Picasso, Monastery of Pedralbes and Caixaforum. He also curated the permanent exhibition of the Museum of World Cultures, Barcelona.

Nana Shimomura is a multidisciplinary artist who deconstructs calligraphy by intertwining her work with contemporary media and associating it with art, music, dance, poetry and architecture. Her calligraphic expression challenges traditional perceptions of art through the primordial, creative impulse of mark-making, or kaku, which in Japanese means ‘writing’, ‘drawing’ and ‘scratching’. Her artistic practice is based on the concept of constellations, which she sees as celestial bodies that bring us close to our ancient ancestors, who also valued them. She is currently resident at Hangar.

Today is Tàpies programme

Podcasts Today is Tàpies, by Catalunya Ràdio.