Reincarnation III: To Splash. David Bestué and Antoni Hervàs incarnated by ¥€$Si Perse and Ali Arévalo
On July 9, 2015, the Joan Miró Foundation, which was celebrating its 40th anniversary at the time, paid tribute to Alexandre Cirici Pellicer, the multifaceted vice president of the Foundation from 1975 to 1983, with the action Mercuri Splash. Artists David Bestué and Antoni Hervàs orchestrated a festive and contemporary tribute that aimed both to highlight Cirici's legacy and to celebrate the contributions of the Joan Miró Foundation to the local artistic ecosystem in its role as a center for contemporary art studies.
From the present, Yessi Perse and Ali Arévalo put forward a critical reincarnation in the company of Carles Castaño, Igor Mortis, Mourae, Postorganic Bauplan, 3.lll.lll, Sergio Monje, Toni Hervàs and Claudia Dyboski through an evening that will include music, sound, splashes, a mass, videogames, dance, videoclips and furries. In their own words:
In Reincarnations III: Splash (aka Mercury Splash Rel☿aded), the Joan Miró Foundation transforms (around the world's only mercurial fountain) into a temple devoted to Mercury, emblem of commerce and tourism. In Roman mythology, Mercury (Hermes in Greece) is the Olympian messenger god, deity of borders and travelers who cross them, of commerce, merchants, and thieves. As a symbol of negotiation and transaction, he carries the caduceus, while his winged sandals represent speed and movement. These emblems appear in the symbolism related to trade and, in particular, to the stock market and capital markets. Mercury embodies the archetype of the dangers of contemporary tourism: the defense of consumerism, the embodiment of the colonizer, or the extractivist practice.
The chemical element mercury (Hg) is a heavy, silvery metal that at room temperature appears as a mobile, shiny liquid, toxic to human health and the environment. It is found in coal deposits and other minerals. Alchemically, it represents the principle of transformation: the mutable spirit that unites opposites, unstable fluidity, and invisible pollution. Alchemy conceived mercury as the raw material used in attempts to transmute impure metals into gold and silver: the philosopher's stone. Like mercury, processes of touristification flow through cities trying to turn them into gold; they infiltrate urban fabrics, leaving toxic, cultural, and ecological residues that are difficult to reverse. It distorts authenticity, transforms habitats into stage sets, populations into extras; it displaces mythologies and folklores, trivializing cultures and turning them into souvenirs.
But in the cracks, resistance emerges like water that stirs and splashes, refusing to leave tourism unchallenged in the face of the precarization and displacement it causes to the local population. In the face of limitless touristification, the act of splashing becomes a gesture of collective resistance.
The activity will begin at Plaça Espanya, next to the Venetian Towers, where a disco bus will accompany us to the Miró Foundation.
With the collaboration of Viu Montjuïc.
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Duration
4 hours
Place
Starting at Plaça Espanya (meeting point: Venetian Towers)
Dates
5 October 2025, from 5 pm to 9 pm
Price
5:00 PM: From Plaça Espanya, Discobus ride to the Miró Foundation (sold out)
5:30 PM: Miró Foundation (free entry, no prior reservation required)
