Mariona Moncunill presents her latest work 'Don't go looking for children at school'

From September 18, the new Palmadotze Galeria temporary exhibition 'Don't go looking for the children at school' by Mariona Moncunill Piñas (Tarragona, 1984) opens, which focuses on the territory and landscape of the valley of the Francolí River in its passage through the North Polygon, one of the most important poles of the national chemical industry, as well as in the imaginaries of the future that arise from the emergency protocols and how life works in uncertainty .

This exhibition is part of a research project on the chemical industry in Camp de Tarragona and, specifically, around the future crisis that it projects, or, in other words, the imaginaries of a future in crisis - ecological and sanitary - in a territory mortgaged by economic interests and the uncertainty caused by the lack or opacity of information regarding the direct effects of this industry on life.

The title of the exhibition, 'Don't go looking for the children at school', is a phrase taken from the fourth point of the self-protection measures protocol of the External Emergency Plan of the Chemical Sector of Tarragona (PLASQTA) which, among others, it seeks the confinement of people in closed spaces in the event of emissions of particularly dangerous gases. Although these plans and the drills to practice their activation are obviously necessary, they also put at the forefront of the population's imagination the risk to which they are exposed and the uncertainty of when, where and how the next crisis will happen.

This is particularly evident in the vulnerability of wanting, but not being able, to pick up one's own sons and daughters at school and having to entrust their protection to the effectiveness of emergency plans that have repeatedly failed in the recent past such as the 2021 IQOXE crash.

'All kinds of plants grow around the factory' (title coming from statements by the former director of the chemical company IQA in La Vanguardia in 1971) is a set of tiles made in the image of the tiles of the house stately Casa Canals de Tarragona. The original tiles mix floral, animal and fanciful decorative motifs in what could be interpreted as an idealization of the union between nature and culture from the perspective of the wealthy classes. In the proposed design, industrial elements - chimneys, tanks, pipes, smoke - of the northern polygon are joined with natural elements of its surroundings such as small flowers (Erucastrum Gallicum) and reeds. With a clearly aesthetic and idealizing will, the tiles raise an imaginary future (or present) of naturalization of this extreme landscape.

Projected at the back of the room, a double-screen video shows the edges of the paths around the Francolí River as it passes through the North Pole. On the other hand, 'MOD series' is a modular ceramic sculpture based on the design of the emergency sirens installed throughout the countryside of Tarragona (from the MOD series of the Federal Signal brand). This siren model stands out on an aesthetic level for being hardly recognizable as a speaker due to its unconventional shape. At the same time, however, once you know what they are, they become distinctive visual elements, in addition to sound, of the protection protocols against the risk, in this case, chemical.

This work, made with the advice of Julieta Dentone, proposes to turn the seven cylindrical modules that are part of these towers into a set of ceramic pots that house the plants of the environment that the mermaids protect. During the exhibition, these will host a selection of plants collected from the margins of the North Polygon.

Finally 'Air over the North Polygon' a series of 6 photographs shows the air above the different chemical companies that are part of it. These are seemingly insignificant images of the sky, but they seek to capture, unsuccessfully, the colorless gases that are or are not being emitted at that moment by each of the factories.

This exhibition can be visited until December 1, 2024 at Palmadotze Gallery.

Mariona Moncunill, artist with international projection

Mariona Moncunill lives and works in Barcelona. She has a degree in Fine Arts and a master's degree in Cultural Management from the UB. She is also a doctor in Information Society and Knowledge by the UOC. He completed part of his studies at the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in The Hague (Netherlands) and spent research periods at the Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano de Medellín (Colombia) and at the Institut für Soziologie Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg (Germany).

His interest in discursive analysis and the forms of use and modification of symbolic value have led him to work with different areas such as exhibition space and museography, journalistic infographics, librarianship and its management of knowledge or the construction of the idea of nature in parks and botanical gardens.

He has exhibited individually and collectively 'A=A, B=B' (Fundació Tàpies, 2023), 'De pelucas, grafitis y libros' (Museo Picasso-Colección Eugenio Arias, 2019), MAC (Mataró, 2017), in the RAER (Rome, 2017), MUSAC (León, 2017), Espai 13, Fundació Joan Miró (Barcelona, 2012) and the Convent dels Àngels del MACBA (Barcelona, 2014), among others.

In Palmadotze he has participated in different projects such as 'Swab 2017' and collective exhibitions such as 'Paisatges. The stigma of the social' (2015) curated by Imma Prieto, 'Reset II' (2013) curated by Valentín Roma or '4 x 12 and the Cat' (2008) curated by Amanda Cuesta.

Moncunill will also be present at the next edition of the Swab Barcelona Art Fair 2024 at the Palmadotze Galeria stand together with the artists Susanna Inglada and Martí Madaula Esquirol, which will be held from October 3 to 6, 2024 in Barcelona.