"Illusions and illusionism" by Joaquim Gomis at the Joan Miró Foundation

The Joan Miró Foundation presents the exhibition Illusions and Illusionism from February 7 to May 14. Photographs by Joaquim Gomis curated by Martina Milà. The exhibition gathers photographs that go from the 1940s to the beginning of the sixties and were taken in different places in Barcelona, Sitges and El Masnou. The selection highlights Joaquim Gomis's interest in popular entertainment, unusual objects and the world of children's and family games.

Illusions and illusionism begins with a photograph taken in Barcelona's Ciutadella park in December 1946, at the height of Franco's autarchy. This period of deprivation and economic scarcity, which lasted until the beginning of the 1960s, coincides precisely with the twenty years that comprise the sample. In one of the images, a group of well-warmed people look at the fish in the park's large fountain. The water and the movements of the fish distract them and mirror them with fluid and changing forms that create simple illusions that make them forget the harshness of their everyday lives. This photograph opens a sequence of snapshots that evoke moments of magical strangeness: images of tasks or trades that, because they have disappeared, seem curious to us, at the same time that they make us think of popular games or traditions; threatening objects – such as the dissected owl from the taxidermy shop in Plaça Reial – that make us suspect that at any moment they could come to life, or the radical transformation of the environment that an artist's design can achieve, such as the case of the doghouse made by Moisès Villèlia for the house of a family from El Masnou.

The exhibition Illusions and illusionism resonates with Imaginary Friends , the exhibition that the Foundation will present this spring in its temporary rooms and which aims to introduce family audiences to the imaginative and creative possibilities of contemporary art.

Joaquim Gomis i Serdañons (Barcelona, 1902-1991), entrepreneur, art promoter, collector and president of the Joan Miró Foundation between 1972 and 1975, was one of the first Catalan photographers to use a modern language. For more than five decades, he developed an extensive and rigorous photographic production, which was linked to the most advanced artistic positions of his time. He was a founding member of ADLAN (Amics de l'Art Nou, 1932-1936) and Club 49 (1949-1971), two of the most active groups in the dissemination of avant-garde art in Catalonia between 1930 and in 1970. His photographic collection is a valuable testimony to the life, work, landscapes and creative process of Miró, with whom Gomis maintained a close bond of friendship.

The photography collections of Joaquim Gomis are currently preserved in the Gomis Fund of the National Archives of Catalonia, whose rights are managed by the Joan Miró Foundation. This fund consists of 70,000 images and complementary documentation (letters, press collections, books and catalogues). Since 2012, the Joan Miró Foundation has been organizing photography exhibitions in its lobby. Based on the agreement with the heirs of Joaquim Gomis and the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Foundation is responsible for managing the Gomis Archive, as well as disseminating its contents and promoting the study of the photographer's work . With this intention, the work of Gomis is temporarily exhibited in the hall, alternating it with samples of other creators who have practiced photography in an amateur way.