Mèdol, the new Center for Contemporary Arts in Tarragona, presents its 2022 program

Marrow. Center d'Arts Contemporànies de Tarragona presents all the programming for 2022. The new artistic equipment, one of the eight territorial centers of the Public System of Visual Arts Equipment of Catalonia, directed by the cultural manager Vicent Fibla (Sant Carles de la Ràpita, 1970) and which opened its doors last November, was born with the aim of structuring and invigorating the artistic agents of the Camp de Tarragona, and of creating synergies and collaborations with other spaces and facilities in the city.

The 2022 program combines exhibition proposals by established artists such as cabosanroque, with young creators such as Ivan Forcadell, and activities of own production, the result of artistic residencies, and in collaboration with cultural agents and entities in the territory.

Mèdol's artistic season begins with extinctionFest, a festival curated by Oriol Fuster Cabrera that invites debate and reflection on what is extinct, and that combines exhibitions, conferences and concerts. L'ExtincióFest, which is set up in Tarragona after a first edition at Lo Pati, Terres de l'Ebre Art Center, is programming a double group exhibition on January 22nd to March 6th. self-destruction and biodiversity loss, with artists Beatriz Regueira, Elena Blesa, La Queency, Marc Suanes, Mari Reme Silvestre, Neisha, Roser Vernet, Kamran Behrouz and Helena Vinent; the performances of the Mallorcan singer-songwriter Joana Gomila or the Valencian rapper Tesa, presentations by the philosopher Marina Garcés and the LGBTI + and genre journalist Rubén Serrano, the dance show “Tant de bo fos blanc” by Ricard Boyle & Andrea Bel or the poetic-musical performance of Vladivostok, among other activities.

Ecological thinking and environmental reflection come from the hand of Cultura Verda, a transversal and multidisciplinary festival curated by Freya Day that uses contemporary artistic creation as a tool to raise awareness about sustainability. In the second edition of the festival, born in 2021, Mèdol hosts a group exhibition with artists such as Albert Macaya, Àlvar Calvet, Aureli Ruiz, Núria Rión, Roger Caparó and Roser Oduber, among others, which can be seen between the months of March and May.

Mèdol will host the first large-format solo exhibition by the young Canarian artist Ivan Forcadell (Alcanar, 1993). A multidisciplinary, carefree and irreverent artist, Forcadell plays with striking colors and textures to create conceptual pop art compositions with an ironic tone and uncomplicated style. The top floor of the Casa Canals, which could have housed the servile bodies of the manor house, this time houses a farmhouse room: a body supposedly just as helpful and produced by another. Forcadell - based on his own family as a close reference of the peasantry - fervently shows this world, where storms, floods, daily magic, the vegetables that sustain life; an unexpected room, a mystical bed, erotic rages, imagined walls, very lively folklore. The exhibition, curated by the young independent curator and art critic Gabriel Virgilio, can be visited from June to September.

The artist Fito Conesa (Cartagena, 1980) curated Waves of Resistance, a group exhibition and a series of activities resulting from the collaboration with organizations such as the Tarragona School of Music and the Women's Choir. Waves of Resistance, which will take place between October and December, is based on concepts such as spontaneity, accident, chance, progress, technological advances, DIY and biohacking, ecosystems and the invisible patterns of body and the (im) possibility of communicating with those who do not want or cannot hear.

cabosanroque will present “Dimonis”, the sound installation that this time has had the collaboration of the singer Niño de Elche, the dancer Rocío Molina and the poet Enric Casasses. The Barcelona experimental music duo has focused on one of the most particular experiences of the poet Jacint Verdaguer, the exorcisms in which he participated between 1890 and 1893 in Barcelona, recreating the space and prayers of these rituals. which the public may freely modify. The facility can be visited in November and December.

With the aim of reaching other spaces in the city, Mèdol presents Espais Inerts, a project of its own production that, outside the walls of Casa Canals, activates spaces in the city through artistic action. Espais Inerts, which will be held on 6, 7 and 8 May and is curated by Marta Oliveres, a program of dance shows and performances by Sònia Gómez, Nico Baixas, Xesca Salvà and Marga Socías, among others, in the Plaça del Fòrum , outside the Market or in the Patio de Casa Canals.

The new Espai L of Casa Canals, an exhibition environment for the most emerging proposals in the territory, hosts Critical Spaces, six small-format exhibitions lasting six weeks each, with artists such as Nil Joan (Cabra del Camp, 1995), Iria Rodon (Valls, 1996), Mario Santamaria (Burgos, 1985) or Anna Dot (Vic, 1991), among others. The series, which will take place from January to December 2022, is curated by Quim Torres, art historian and curator, coordinator of the magazine Artiga and collaborator of the MACBA and the Museu de Valls.