Exhibitions
“Don't go pick up the children from school yet.”
Mariona Moncunill on life in uncertainty; at the Museum of Modern Art in Tarragona.
The Francolí River valley, as it passes through the northern petrochemical estate of Tarragona, is the setting for Don't go looking for children at school, yet , the exhibition by Mariona Moncunill at the Museu d'Art Moderne de Tarragona. The exhibition takes as its starting point the daily coexistence with chemical risk in one of the main petrochemical centres in southern Europe and reflects on the way in which this threat has become integrated into the daily life of the territory.
The title recalls a phrase from the self-protection protocol of the Tarragona Chemical Sector External Emergency Plan (PLASEQTA), activated in the event of a chemical accident with toxic emissions. The instruction —“Don't go pick up the children from school yet”— summarizes the tension between the need for protection and the feeling of uncertainty that accompanies the population in the face of possible emergencies. The protocols and drills are part of risk management and are a constant reminder of the fragility of an environment conditioned by the proximity of the chemical industry.
The exhibition connects this reality with the recent memory of the IQOXE accident of 2020. An event that highlighted the limitations of security systems and accentuated public distrust. Without resorting to an explicit representation of the catastrophe, Moncunill works from images, objects and atmospheres linked to the northern industrial estate to build a story about vulnerability, waiting and the normalization of danger.
Through seemingly ordinary landscapes, the exhibition raises a reflection on the relationship between industry, health and territory, and on how communities learn to live under a latent threat. Don't go pick up the children at school, yet turns an administrative phrase into a metaphor for contemporary uncertainty.
You may be
interested
...
