Debate on "Catalan artists: a feminist perspective" at the CCCB

The CCCB hosted, on November 28 at 6:30 p.m., the debate entitled Catalan artists: a feminist perspective, led by Elina Norandi, art historian, Meri Torras, professor of comparative literature, and Martina Millà, head of exhibitions at the Joan Miró Foundation, who spoke about the importance of women artists in contemporary art in Catalonia. The conversation, which lasted approximately one and a half hours, was presented and moderated by the journalist Maria Gorgues.

It must be said that this event coincided with the presentation of the book Cent dues artistes (Univers Art, 2022), which studies the work of visual artists in Catalonia from the 19th century to the present day. According to the editors of the book "the aim of the proposal is not to isolate the artists as an exoticism, but to show that historical circumstances and the patriarchal structure have caused women not to create in the same circumstances as men and that, consequently , separate categories of analysis are needed”. According to Morandi "in the book we have made reference to the female artists of the beginning of the 19th century, those who lived the Post-war period, those who created the Women's Art Salon in the 60s and we have closed with those born in 1982. We have also highlighted the women who dedicated themselves to ceramics and it must be said that we have left out the women who drew comics". Elina also wanted to point out that men such as Sergio Fuentes and Chema Romero have also participated in the edition of the book.

For her part, Meri Torras explained that "we have done work that can be considered archaeological in order to shed light on what has been invisible for many years and centuries and I want to highlight the use of the prefix RE (to recover) that this has been the main objective of the book even though we will continue to fight against the chameleon patriarchy, which still exists and I suspect that there are still strategies that continue to promote it”.

This event had the participation of the authors who have collaborated in the book and some of the artists studied who dedicated a few words of thanks to the editors and talked about their first-person experiences in the world of the art.