Exhibitions
Presentation of 'Libraries in Flames' by the CAC Palma Visual Arts
Starting on October 1st, the CAC Palma Visual Arts Biblioteques en Flames proposal by Francesco Giaveri will be inaugurated, which will take place in the municipal libraries of Palma, Joan Alcover, Ramon Llull and El Molinar. The artistic installations can be visited until November 16th, 2025.
The artists invited for this occasion are Stefano Calligaro, Bartomeu Sastre, Anna Dot and Enric Farrés i Duran, who have researched extensively on books, text and reading. The main objective of this project is to highlight libraries as meeting places, knowledge bases and cultural heritage.
The project has been curated by Francesco Giaveri, with the collaboration of CAC Palma, Casal Solleric, Palma Municipal Libraries, Palma Cultura, Palma 2031 and Palma City Council.
3 exhibitions at the Municipal Libraries
Biblioteques en Flames presents three exhibitions located in the libraries of the Palma City Council. These are works and interventions, most of which are unpublished, produced expressly for each of the three libraries. The four artists work and research topics related to books, text and reading. In addition, dialogues have been established between the artists and the libraries with the mediation of the curator and thanks to residencies in Palma since January of this year.
The purpose of this project is to value and pay tribute to libraries as a meeting place, a resource of knowledge and European heritage, through the four visual artists and researchers invited, whose works highlight the importance of knowledge, text and reading. The proposals of these artists include, in addition to their artistic interventions, works and publications in the space, a series of activities open to the public: a conference, a small room publication and two workshops.
On the other hand, the title of this project refers to a free translation of Susan Orlean's famous essay dedicated to the fire at the Los Angeles Central Library in 1986. A story that describes not only the hours of horror of that tragic event but also the importance of libraries as living and inhabited places, in continuous movement and rich in possibilities, where the memory and culture that sustain and nourish the development of civilization are preserved.
As for the exhibitions, Stefano Calligaro presents an installation with large texts at the Joan Alcover Library thanks to his Poetricks, short poetic and ironic texts in three languages (Catalan, Spanish and English) of new creation, made expressly for this library. The installation will be completed with publications by the artist. In the same space, Bartomeu Sastre will install photographic and mixed media works close to the reading spaces, in addition to an unpublished intervention designed specifically for this space. The Mallorcan artist will also hold a workshop.
The exhibition by Enric Farrés Duran, who has carried out two stays in Mallorca in May and September, is a specific and unprecedented intervention for the space of the Ramon Llull Library in Palma, while also offering a public talk about his research related to libraries.
Finally, Anna Dot presents a sculptural installation based on the language (asemic writing) of the sun. It is a sculpture that hangs from the ceiling and, due to its lightness, will move. Likewise, the artist will install texts about asemic writing and her reflections on this research and her work carried out in the Biblioteca del Molinar. Dot will hold a workshop aimed at children between 8 and 12 years old from a school group in the library's neighborhood. The three exhibitions will have a hand-held publication in which the curator talks about the interventions and the project in general.
