Exhibitions
Carles Torrent i Pagès inaugurates Like Water Skin at the Cork Museum of Catalonia in Palafrugell
On Saturday, July 19, the Museu del Suro de Catalunya presented the new temporary exhibition entitled Com pell d'aigua by the artist Carles Torrent Pagès (Girona, 1969) in the Sala Manufactures of the Museum. This exhibition is an artistic proposal in homage to cork, a noble and essential material that has accompanied humanity since ancient times. It should be remembered that already in the time of the Greeks and Romans they used it to seal amphorae, make floats or sandal soles. But it was between the 17th and 18th centuries that its use was consolidated as the ideal closure for glass bottles, which boosted the industrial production of corks in regions with an abundance of cork oaks, such as Catalonia and France. Throughout the 19th century, the expansion of the international trade in wine and cava fueled a great growth in the extraction and manufacture of cork, favoring the birth of an industry rooted in the territory, especially in the Girona regions.
Image temporary exhibition by Carles Torrent i Pagès
This exhibition aims to value cork and pay tribute to all the people who have been linked to it, whether through the care of forests or work in factories. The natural environment and the lives that inhabit it have formed a deep deposit of collective identity. As for Torrent Pagès, as a multidisciplinary artist, he has always been interested in the specific relationship that is established with each material and the work process that it implies. For some years now, he has been particularly attracted to cork, not only for its physical and symbolic qualities, but also for the entire natural, human and cultural universe that surrounds it.
Image temporary exhibition by Carles Torrent i Pagès
According to the artist, “Cassà de la Selva, my hometown, has been one of the cork cores of the Girona region. The link, in my case, is deep and personal: my father dedicated his entire life to industrial mechanics, especially linked to the maintenance of the cork sector and the development of new machinery for its manufacture. I grew up surrounded by this world, and this vital background has led me to undertake a creative search to truly value it. It is not just about using cork, but thinking from within cork — opening paths to explore everything it can become, everything it evokes and reveals, to bring out new perspectives. In this context, sculpture can become a tool to generate cork culture: a way to activate and re-signify this legacy from contemporary art.”
The opening included the intervention of the curator and artist Sana López Abellán, who gave an overview of the artist and her exhibition project. A series of guided tours and a round table were scheduled during the exhibition. On September 27 of this year, an action/performance with sound and dance is planned to be held by Llantarts (Jesús Asenjo) and Natsuki (Anna Ventura). The exhibition will be open to the public until November 2, 2025.
Image temporary exhibition by Carles Torrent i Pagès
