Valencia’s most intimate face returns to Céret | luck

Some have been hiding in his studio for more than two years, but Jaume Belinsa’s new sculptures (Barcelona, ​​1995) have finally seen the light (although with their eyes closed). The Catalan artist was responsible for the reopening of the Céret Museum of Modern Art in France, which reopened this Saturday with an additional 1,270 square meters after closing its doors in November 2019.

The distinctive giant faces of Plensa, defying conventional relationships in terms of size and weight, stand out in emblematic places in Chicago, Nice, Rio de Janeiro or Madrid, where Julia’s face has rested since December 2018 in the Plaza de Colon. But this time, his characters reside indoors in the new temporary exhibition hall designed by the 2018 French National Architecture Prize winner, Pierre-Louis Faloussi. The total cost of the project, for which the Céret City Council was responsible, is €7,483,000 and includes exhibition spaces, warehouses and workshops.

The gallery, which is now opening one of its rooms, Every Face is a Place, brings together for the first time 12 large-scale original sculptures and drawings created between 2019 and 2021 by Plensa, which, he says, is also a way of paying homage to “all the dramatic faces” that reached these days due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “The image is a part of our body that makes it difficult for us to see ourselves. It is the great gift we give to others.. a door that we open to others,” the sculptor confirmed Friday during the opening of the exhibition.

The exhibition begins and ends with two statues, the first fixed to the ground and the second suspended in the air, inviting silence with their gesture, another of Plains’ obsessions. “Silence is not the lack of speech, but the ability to better understand and listen to our thoughts, the vibration of our bodies and our thoughts,” he explained. During the tour, silhouettes appear depicted in marble, bronze, steel, or even painted on plates. “For me, a sculpture is like a message in a bottle. The message is very important, but the bottle is the key. Here you will see many bottles with a very similar message,” explained the messenger.

This isn’t the first time it’s been shown at Céret. He did so in 2015 with The Silence of Thought and considers this new exhibition to be a continuation of that exhibition. Moreover, on this occasion, he wants the result to be “like a quiet walk at five in the afternoon, when you don’t know whether it’s day or night.” During his visit to the facilities, he stressed a quiet show without a play.

Nor is he the only great artist captured by this French city. They lived in it and composed masterpieces of cubism, Picasso and Park. Andre Mason, Maurice Lutruil or Juan Gris were regular visitors, and Jean Cocteau, Jean Dubuffet or Albert Marquet as a fugitive from World War II came. Their fingerprints are all still now in the museum, along with the relics of many others such as Dali or Miro.

Plensa sample can be visited until June (admission €10 and cut, seven). But the mutual love between the city and the artist predicts that their relationship will not end here.