Exhibitions
A universe of words and images: Rodoreda at the CCCB
An immersive and unprejudiced exhibition that reveals the strength, complexity and radicalism of the most translated Catalan writer of the 20th century.
The CCCB proposes a new look at Mercè Rodoreda with Un bosc , an exhaustive and prejudice-free exhibition that can be visited until May 25. The exhibition, curated by Neus Penalba, places radicality at the very heart of her literature and articulates a journey that filters its major thematic axes. Each motif is revealed as part of a living and expansive constellation of meanings, which grows like the deep roots and branches that open to the sky of the same tree. This symbolic organism, dense and intertwined, invites the visitor to enter it and let themselves be carried away by a poetic map where each node leads to another, revealing the strength, complexity and unmistakable universe of Rodoreda.
Feliu Elias, Portrait of Mariona Pagès Elias, 1916. Rosa Regàs Collection.
Possibly, this is one of the most anticipated, fascinating and impactful exhibitions of the year, where Mercè Rodoreda not only allows us to understand how the selected works dialogue, but also highlights the greatness of her writing, which, beyond its beauty, hides layers and interpretations that transcend the text itself.
This is not a biographical exhibition in the traditional sense about Mercè Rodoreda, but a deep immersion in the texts and imagination of the most important Catalan writer of the 20th century and the most translated, a journey that transcends paper and delves into the very texture of her words. The exhibition unfolds as an itinerary between words and images, structured in six major thematic areas that ignite the main fires of her work: innocence, desire, war, the houses of Barcelona, metamorphosis and the soul. Each area acts as its own universe, where the selected quotes from Rodoreda dialogue with works by other creators who, before or after, have explored the same events, suffering, longings or hopes, as if each work were a reflection or an echo of the same shared emotion.
Francesc Carrera Bou, Vase with flowers, 1922-1926, © Museum of Art of Catalonia.
Artists such as Suzanne Valadon, Fina Miralles, Ramon Casas, Marc Chagall, Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington, Picasso, Dora Maar, Man Ray, Laia Abril or Alice Rohrwacher —to name just a few names among the four hundred works that make up the exhibition— establish a silent dialogue with Rodoreda, creating a tapestry of images and meanings that beats to the rhythm of his literature and allows us to perceive the invisible connections between art and words, time and memory, reality and imagination.
The visitor, thus, finds himself immersed in a network of meanings that unfolds like a tree with deep roots and intertwined branches: each work is a branch that intersects with the others, each quote a leaf that is shaken by the wind of interpretations. It is a poetic and visual map, a constellation of emotions and reflections that reveals the complexity, strength and infinite beauty of a literary universe that transcends the text itself, inviting one to get lost in it, to discover unsuspected nuances and to let oneself be carried away by the mystery and richness of Rodoreda's work.
Jordi Baron Rubí. Rambla 102. Series: Domus Barcino (3), 2006. Courtesy of the artist.
