And Ezequiel Torroella Biennial, an ambitious proposal that unites landscape and research

"A man sets himself the task of drawing the world. Over the years he has populated a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, pieces, rooms, instruments, stars, horses and people. Shortly before dying, he discovers that this patient maze of lines traces the image of his face.”

The maker, Jorge Luis Borges

Catalonia is a territory with immense creative potential, a land that sprouts creators capable of explaining to us our presence in the world, our environment, our desires, our shortcomings, that, in short, that defines our species and becomes essential in the evolution of any society. Following this observation, we should not be surprised that the numerous agents that are part of the country's cultural fabric do their hands and sleeves when it comes to supporting emerging art, the creativity that begins its singularity in the complex - and let me tell you, feréstec – art market. Under the silent gaze of the dolmen of Montagut, the beautiful town of Palamós, shelter and refuge for artists and writers, has had a new initiative since last June that deserves special attention. This is the Ezequiel Torroella Art Biennial, an ambitious proposal that will surely be talked about. And I'm not just referring to the fact that it's a contest for young creators under the age of 35, but that what makes it particularly attractive is precisely its conception.

In search of the landscape

First of all, the same theme of the contest: "The landscape and the search for paradise, the paradise found in the landscape. The real landscape and the landscape as a creation of the artist", a theme that places us in (re)visiting in a contemporary key the yearning that sustains it. Because behind the expression of the landscape hides an idea, a process, an illusion, a search for the inaccessible and sublime and a need, also, to preserve our natural and cultural heritage. On the other hand, the artistic commission of the Ezequiel Torroella Art Biennale - made up of seven representatives from the different cultural facilities of the country and the academic world - distributed among three curators the accompaniment and formalization of the nine projects that went to the final phase A follow-up that allowed the artists to have the advice of professionals and that turned out to be quite a spur to formalize the projects. In addition, the fact that curators and artists shared their projects with the members of the commission – a meeting that took place on June 1, at the MACBA – led to a stimulating dialogue for everyone.

Albert Gironès

Unanimously by the members of the jury, the artistic committee awarded the prize of the 1st Ezequiel Torroella Art Biennale to the multidisciplinary project The Miracle of the Sun, by Albert Gironès (Valls, 1995), and two accesits.

Intended to delve deeper into popular mysticism, the work of this young creator with a long career has as its main axis the process, which he masterfully conceives from an anthropological perspective. Through drawing, video and historical documentation, all of them articulated in the same installation, a dialogue and a debate in contemporary thought between art, religion and science. Thus, it is proposed to represent the unrepresentable, the miracle, through a rational vision that does not want to end up being so, since in mysticism, alchemy and ritual, art always has a common and shared vocabulary . The award, worth five thousand euros, also includes a publication and an exhibition, which will be held in the Carmel chapel in the same town of Emporda, where the Ezequiel Torroella legacy is currently located. This gathers more than 800 pieces by the painter, ceded by his widow in 2008 with the desire to promote knowledge of art with a special interest in revealing vocations among young people.