CASA SEAT inaugurated on July 10 a new exhibition on the evolution of sustainable art, a discipline that seeks to create works with any waste material that can be reused or recycled, contributing to preserving the environment. The opening ceremony was attended by Tanja Grass, director and curator of the Drap-Art association, and Raquel Medina, PhD in Art History from the University of Barcelona, who will present the exhibition and perform a guided tour for the media.
It should be remembered that Tanja Grass founded the Drap-Art association in 1995 with 14 other members and since then has been in charge of its management, the management of the International Festival of Sustainable Art of Catalonia and the curatorship of multiple exhibitions . For her part, Raquel Medina de Vargas is a member of the Catalan (ACCA) and International (AICA) critics' associations and has extensive experience as an independent curator of exhibitions and artistic events. The exhibition seeks to trace the evolution of sustainable art from its beginnings through two pioneers in this field, Modest Cuixart and HA Schult, to the present day, with a selection of works by contemporary artists.
The current works will be represented by the artists 3-DKE, Àlex Cardona, Agustine Namatsi Okubo, Ignat C. de Michaelis, Indira Urrutia, Jana Álvarez, Jordi Prat Pons, José Manuel Carretero, Lisa Rubin, Luis Cebaqueva, Nicolas Maas, Nourathar Studio and Ocean Sun. Self-taught Modest Cuixart was a Catalan painter characterized by experimentation in abstract art who, already in the sixties, began working with discarded materials or found objects. Cuixart has exhibited in spaces such as the Cercle des Beaux-Arts in Paris, the National Museum of Art in Buenos Aires, the Tate Gallery in London and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Currently, he has works at the MoMA in New York, the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid and the MACBA in Barcelona, among other collections. For his part, HA Schult is a German artist known for action art and sustainable art and considered a pioneer in dealing with ecological concerns through art. In 1969, Schult attracted worldwide attention with his artistic intervention Situation Schackstrasse, which consisted of covering an entire street in Munich with garbage and paper.
In addition to the works of the pioneers Cuixart and Schult, the exhibition will include works by current artists linked to sustainable art and who have contributed to raising awareness about the care of the environment. Coming from Europe, America and Africa and marked by different artistic traditions, these contemporary artists have explored the creative possibilities of waste materials through various techniques and forms of expression. Thus, the pieces in the exhibition move between painting, design, illustration, assemblage and collage. This exhibition can be visited until September 7, 2024.