{"id":837,"date":"2018-01-24T11:26:36","date_gmt":"2018-01-24T10:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fmirobcn.org\/blog\/?p=837\/"},"modified":"2018-01-30T12:00:11","modified_gmt":"2018-01-30T11:00:11","slug":"miro-as-sounding-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fmirobcn.org\/blog\/en\/2018\/01\/24\/miro-as-sounding-board\/","title":{"rendered":"Mir\u00f3 as a Sounding Board"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few years ago, browsing in El Astillero bookshop, my eye was caught by an unfamiliar poster that touched on several of my passions: in July 1966, Club 49 brought the Merce Cunningham Dance Company to perform in Sitges alongside John Cage and David Tudor<\/strong>; Mir\u00f3 designed the poster. The very poster that now hangs in my dining room. More recently, in December 2016, when I went to the exhibition Escuchar con los ojos. Arte sonoro en Espa\u00f1a, 1961-2016<\/em> [Listening through Your Eyes: Sound Art in Spain, 1961\u20132016], at the Fundaci\u00f3n March in Madrid, I discovered the letters that had sparked this partnership. On 25 November 1965, Jacques Dupin wrote to John Cage from the Maeght Gallery in Paris to tell him how delighted Mir\u00f3 was that their forthcoming tour would include Spain. He also confirmed that the artist was willing to create a piece to promote the performances in Barcelona and Saint-Paul-de-Vence for them to use in any way they saw fit. Some days later, on 3 December 1965, John Cage replied: \u2018Mir\u00f3\u2019s gift of a painting makes our plans to come to Europe next summer and fall absolutely feasible.\u2019<\/strong> At that time, Mir\u00f3 was a renowned artist with considerable commercial cachet, whereas Cage and Cunningham, although respected in influential circles, had neither the economic resources of artists like Mir\u00f3 nor anything like the same level of popular recognition. In fact, keen to work with them in whatever way he could, it had been Mir\u00f3\u2019s idea to bring Cunningham and Cage to Catalonia; and it was his gift that made the tour a real possibility. Now, more than fifty years later, as well as attesting to a heart-warming friendship, this poster also reveals Mir\u00f3\u2019s knack of seeking out likeminded spirits in other areas and other contexts<\/strong> (and then bringing them to Catalonia). And for me personally, it links three worlds that have shaped who I am: Mir\u00f3, Cage and Cunningham.<\/p>\n

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Programme of\u00a0 \u2018Merce Cunningham and Dance Company\u2019 performance, 1966.\u00a0 Printed paper. Fundaci\u00f3 Joan Mir\u00f3, Barcelona \u00a9 Successi\u00f3 Mir\u00f3, 2018<\/p>\n

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Merce Cunningham, John Cage, Francis Miroglio and Joan Mir\u00f3 at the Nuits de la Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, 1966. Photo: Archives Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence (France)<\/p>\n

The Fundaci\u00f3 Joan Mir\u00f3 has also explored this link between art and music.<\/strong> Because the Fundaci\u00f3\u2019s mission isn\u2019t simply to conserve a series of artworks, Mir\u00f3\u2019s heritage, but also to keep alive a legacy: an attitude, a spirit of openness and an urge to engage in dialogue with the present. For many years it ran a series of events called Nits de M\u00fasica<\/strong>. Together with the Setmana de M\u00fasica Experimental at Metr\u00f2nom<\/strong> (under the baton of the exceptional Barbara Held) and G\u2019s Club at Sidecar<\/strong>, these music nights taught me much of what has shaped my tastes in music. At that time, it was rare to see experimental musicians from the international scene. But for a few short days, many of us suddenly felt we were living in a normal city, able to blur boundaries and explore poetry, music and visual arts as a creative continuum<\/strong>. Experimentation, improvisation, jazz, electronic music, sound art\u2026 On those evenings at the Fundaci\u00f3, I was privileged to see musicians who had a huge impact on me, including the likes of Agust\u00ed Fern\u00e1ndez, Evan Parker, David Moss, Phil Minton, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Embryo, Joan Saura, Cluster, L\u00ea Quan Ninh, Carles Santos, Derek Bailey, Zeena Parkins, Chris Cutler, Macromassa, Iva Bittov\u00e1, Hiroshi Kobayashi, Nuno Rebelo, R\u00e0eo, Susie Ibarra, Josep Maria Balany\u00e0, Fred Frith, Il Gran Teatro Amaro, Tim Hodgkinson, Xavier Maristany, Peter Br\u00f6tzmann, Alfonso Vilallonga, Lol Coxhil, DJ Zero and Pascal Comelade, to name but a few. And one of the few concerts from those nights I have managed to track down on the internet features Pascal Comelade at a performance he gave there in 1995 accompanied by some of his legendary musical partners in crime from Barcelona: Gat, Mark Cunningham and Jakob Draminsky H\u00f8jmark. You can watch it on Summa<\/a>, the Habitual Video Team\u2019s online archive. I think Joan Mir\u00f3 would have loved Comelade and his troupe\u2019s version of \u2018Cant dels ocells\u2019. As at all the concerts I went to, the auditorium at the Fundaci\u00f3 was filled with a very special atmosphere: a fleeting celebration that has left few traces in the city yet left its mark on everyone who was there. This is the essential value of music that I have always strived to conserve in my own creative work: its ephemeral nature.<\/p>\n

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Pascal Comelade concert with Gat, Mark Cunningham and Jakob Draminski H\u00f8jmark as part of the Nits de M\u00fasica series. 27 July 1995. Photo: Pere Pratdesaba. Fundaci\u00f3 Joan Mir\u00f3, Barcelona<\/p>\n

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Embryo concert as part of the Nits de M\u00fasica series. 2 September 1999. Photo: Pere Pratdesaba. Fundaci\u00f3 Joan Mir\u00f3, Barcelona<\/p>\n

Mir\u00f3 is said to have spent his afternoons and evenings reading poetry and listening to music; his nights, taking it all in and dreaming; and his mornings, bathed in bright light and total silence, working on his paintings.<\/strong> Every brushstroke, a note shattering the white sky. I like to think it was his way of dancing. A very different dance to Pollock, who reacted spontaneously to the jazz he listened to at full blast: Mir\u00f3\u2019s would be a more cerebral, unhurried dance led by silent, white serenity<\/strong>. A few years ago, Tres, artist of silence<\/strong> and a good friend of mine, curated a season at Espai 13 under the heading Explicit Silence<\/em><\/a> (2009\u20132010), followed by a second season entitled Implicit Sound<\/em><\/a> (2010\u20132011). I have always liked to imagine a conversation between these two artists\u2014in fact, not just a conversation but a blackout concert at the Fundaci\u00f3 like the ones Tres used to give, only this time with Joan Mir\u00f3 as the sole spectator, with all the silence in the world to dance to. When I dance, I like to lose myself in Mir\u00f3\u2019s landscapes and constellations, grabbing hold of a point like a note by Steve Reich.<\/p>\n

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Slow (Agust\u00ed Fern\u00e1ndez, David Mengual, David Xirgu i Dani Dom\u00ednguez) concert as part of the Nits de M\u00fasica series. 28 July 2005. Photo: Pere Pratdesaba. Fundaci\u00f3 Joan Mir\u00f3, Barcelona<\/p>\n

At the end of his life, Mir\u00f3 began burning his increasingly empty canvases\u2014just like Jimi Hendrix did with his guitar. He even trampled them underfoot: the sounding board that hangs from the ceiling of the auditorium, painted a month before the Fundaci\u00f3 opened, in 1975, bears the marks of his footprints<\/strong>. To create it, a chipboard panel was laid on the ground and, after only a couple of days of hard work, the artist proceeded to walk over it, as if crossing a field, drawn by a distant sound. Seen from a distance, out of the corner of my eye, it has always looked like a rocking chair, in the same way that the 1966 Sitges poster has always concealed a rabbit. As if my thoughts were seeking sanctuary in the farmhouse at Mont-roig del Camp.<\/p>\n

Translated by<\/strong> la correccional (serveis textuals)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few years ago, browsing in El Astillero bookshop, my eye was caught by an unfamiliar poster that touched on several of my passions: in July 1966, Club 49 brought the Merce Cunningham Dance Company to perform in Sitges alongside John Cage and David Tudor; Mir\u00f3 designed the poster. The very poster that now hangs … Continue reading Mir\u00f3 as a Sounding Board<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[248,53,268],"tags":[264,262,260],"class_list":["post-837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fundacio-joan-miro-en","category-miro-en","category-music-en","tag-john-cage-en","tag-merce-cunningham-en","tag-nits-de-musica-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMir\u00f3 as a Sounding Board - Blog Fundaci\u00f3 Joan Mir\u00f3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fmirobcn.org\/blog\/en\/2018\/01\/24\/miro-as-sounding-board\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mir\u00f3 as a Sounding Board - Blog Fundaci\u00f3 Joan Mir\u00f3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A few years ago, browsing in El Astillero bookshop, my eye was caught by an unfamiliar poster that touched on several of my passions: in July 1966, Club 49 brought the Merce Cunningham Dance Company to perform in Sitges alongside John Cage and David Tudor; Mir\u00f3 designed the poster. 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