Visit to the Palma Contemporary Art Museum

Tuesday March 22 was another cloudy day with a high of 16C.  No sun, but no rain either.

We headed out to visit the Es Baluard Museu d'Art Contemporani de Palma (Palma Contemporary Art Museum).   We passed a parked Covid Express Bus.  Not yet open for business.

The Covid Express....(definitely not the hop on, hop off bus)

Another Art Nouveau building with a candy store at street level

We walked down a street with a number of buildings hosting the Gerhardt Braun Gallery.  We walked into the courtyard of one of the galleries.

Courtyard of one of the Gerhardt Braun Galleries

Another Braun gallery 

We turned onto Plaça Porta de Santa Catalina where the Museum was located.  The square is dedicated to contrampory art and local culture. First we saw this very cool piece known popularly as "the upside down house" and officially as "Device root out evil" by Dennis Openheim (1938-2011).

Under the upside down house

The giant granite pigeons are the work of Ben Jakober (Mallorcan artist)

The Es Baluard Museu d'Art Contemporani de Palma, opened in 2004.  It is a spectacular building with a wonderful terrace with a view of the harbour and the city.

Entrance to the courtyard of the Museum

Entrance to the building on the right

The current exhibits

The first exhibit entitled Mal Pelo. Before the Words: Temporary Shelter, featured a lot of video pieces done by the collective Mal Pelo, a Catalan dance ensemble based in Barcelona since 1989.  They are broadening the concept of exhibition to include the visualization of bodies.

Many videos of the dancers

An outreached hand (chair)

Wonderful piece in hallway by Erwin Bechtold (b. Cologne, 1925), 95-1,
Bild yum Thema Konzentration und Raum, 1995

The exhibit we enjoyed the most was Personae: Masks Against Barbarism.  The exhibit contained the set of puppets and drawing Juan Miró made in relation to Alfred Jarry's Abu Roi, which Jarry wrote in 1896. Abu Roi became one of the fundamental texts of the Theatre of the Absurd.  It portrayed a dictatorial, grotesque individual.  Joan Miró was fascinated by the character which is why in 1966 he began an in-depth study by means of multiple drawings and lithographs.  Finally, in collaboration with the La Placa theatre group, he created three dimensional human-sized puppets.  

The exhibit considers how since antiquity, human beings have needed an alter ego, or a disguise, enabling them to freely express themselves in times when the given historical context has impeded such expression.  The first room had the puppets created by Miró for the theatrical adaptation entitled Mari El Merma [Death to Merma (the Freak)- a clear allusion to Franco] which premiered at the Theatre Principal in Palma in 1978.  A sound piece recently commissioned by the gallery by experimental theatre director and playwright Robert Wilson titled Ubu Sounds the Alarm accompanied the work.

 

The exhibit started with a quote from Joan Miró: "Regardless of his politics, Franco is a physically disgusting man.  There are faces that cannot lie."  There was another quote by Giorgio Agamben (Italian philosopher b. Rome, 1942): "Persona originally means mask and it is through the mask that the individual acquires a role and a social identity."

Miro's drawings for the production 

A single piece

Joan Miró, The Wife, ca. 1977

The Standard-Bearer, ca. 1977

Additional drawings

The Dog of Abu, ca. 1977

The Merma, ca. 1977

The second section focuses on a set of pictorial expressions, most done in the second half of the 20th century. They deal with transformations that have taken place in the depiction of the human body.  

Ferran García Sevilla, Adam and Eve, 1980

Pablo Picasso, Patinated Face, 1959 and Vallauris, 1953

Antón Patiño, Untitled,1984

The third section deals with reflections around the question of identities against censorship, created mostly between the 1960s and today.  

Shirin Neshat, Couple at Intersection, 2000

Pilar Albarracín, 2009

The last exhibit was by Mounir Fatmi entitled: While the Storm Arrives.  Fatmi was born in Morocco in 1970 and works today between Paris, Los Angeles and Mallorca. 

The large central installation was called Inside the Fire Circle (2017-2022).  It is a sculptural installation made up of a number of vintage typewriters arranged on the gallery floor, interconnected by a thicket of tangled black and red jump cables.  Pieces of paper with writing (the viewers are asked to write something) are clamped into the clips at the end of the cables.  The artist is forging a metaphor of the construction of history.

There was another piece entitled: Before the Storm (2022) -- living in a net of confusion, an apocalyptic view of the future.

We enjoyed our visit to the museum- very challenging and interesting exhibits.

Before we left, we went on the terrace for the wonderful views of the city.

The Cathedral in the distance

One of the sculptures in the Museum grounds and the harbour

Alano at a lookout

View through the lookout-- mountains in the distance

Lots of boats in the harbour

We then walked across a small bridge.

Crossing the bridge

Looks like a Miró character

Fabulous playground

We stopped at the Mercat de Santa Catalina.  We had checked the website which said it was open until 4:00 p.m.  That is why we decided to go after our visit to the Museum.  We got there at about 

3:30 p.m. but all the fruit/veg/meat/fish vendors were closed.  Only a few restaurants and take out food stalls were open.  We were told that the main market closes around 2:00-2:30 p.m.  Ah well...

Outside of the Mercat de Santa Carolina

Luckily Mister Poulet was open and we were able to get a delicious looking half a roast chicken.  

Mr. Poulet was almost ready to close

Santa Carolina is a foodie district with lots of small bars, restos and food shops.  We wandered down a small street with an enticing sign for chocolate.  Cachao is a vegan, raw and organic chocolate store (no gluten, soy or dairy).  The chocolate is made on site.  The chocolatier gave us some samples and we bought an orange chocolate bar and a jar of chocolate coffee beans.

Outside of Cachao Chocolate Factory

Bunnies for Easter

Alano and the chocolate maker (he is tall!)

The chocolate maker recommended a nearby restaurant where we could grab a bite to eat.  We stoped at El Perrito for an avocado/hummus/poached egg sandwich on delicious Mallorcan brown bread.

Sign in the window

Alano pre lunch

We then went to another location of La Molienda coffee just around the corner and both had a cortado.

At La Molienda

We liked their logo with the coffee cup over the man

We then wandered a bit more before heading back to the apartment.

La viniloteca-- vinyl records and natural wines

Chef Alano prepared our dinner of the roast chicken, potatoes with rosemary and fresh green beans. A salad course followed.

We continued drinking a bottle of very good red wine from Ribas, one of the oldest wineries in Mallorca. It is a small winery that has been running since the beginning of the 18th century.

Our bottle of wine

A great way to end another great day in Palma!