Joan Mateu transforms the Mediterranean into matter in Les Bernardes de Salt

Les Bernardes de Salt hosts Mar de terra, terra de mar , the new exhibition by the artist from Salta, Joan Mateu, a project that is presented as the most extensive and ambitious of the last ten years of his career. Coinciding with the celebration of his fiftieth anniversary, the artist takes a significant step in his artistic research with the incorporation of ceramics, a previously unheard-of language in his work.

Curated by Girona native Carmen Simon, the exhibition brings together more than a hundred pieces, including paintings and ceramic works, forming a journey that explores the Mediterranean from a perspective far removed from figurative representation. Here, the sea does not appear as a recognizable image, but as a latent presence, an imprint that manifests itself through textures, gestures, reliefs and visual sediments.

The exhibition proposes an immersion in the physical, emotional and symbolic dimension of the Mediterranean landscape. The works do not describe the sea; they translate it. Both painting and ceramics become surfaces of memory where light, the movement of water and the intensity of the territory are fixed in the material.

The tour is structured into two main areas. On the ground floor, under the title Mar de Terra , the visitor finds a set of works inspired by elements linked to navigation and maritime records: logbooks, nautical charts or Douglas ladders abandon their original function to become poetic witnesses to the passage of time and the memory of the sea.

On the first floor, Terra de Mar shifts the gaze towards the coastline. The coastal vegetation, rocks, geological reliefs and forms typical of Mediterranean landscapes emerge as fragments of a lived and internalized territory. The transition between the two spaces is marked by an intervention by Daniela Colafranceschi, located in the void of the staircase, which acts as a conceptual bridge between the sea and the land.

The great novelty of the project is the incorporation of ceramics. Far from a simple formal exercise, this new language represents a profound transformation in Mateu's artistic practice. The ceramic pieces, located halfway between sculpture and mural, establish a direct dialogue with the paintings and pose a reflection on the capacity of matter to retain movement and convert water into earth without completely losing its memory.

This process has been possible thanks to the collaboration of the renowned potter Eloi Bonadona, from Quart, who has actively participated in the firing and technical development of the works. Photographer Andrea Esteve has documented the entire creative process through images and videos, leaving evidence of a work that has been developed for more than two years.

For Carmen Simon, the exhibition starts from the sea as an experience transformed into matter. The curator emphasizes that the project deliberately moves away from any conventional landscape vision to focus on the sensorial, physical and territorial dimensions of the Mediterranean. This perspective becomes especially evident in the second part of the tour, where the relationship between nature and culture unfolds through plant forms, geological structures and references to the agricultural landscape.

Among these pieces, a series dedicated to sunflowers stands out, present in different vital states. Blooming or dried, they become symbols of a territory in transition towards the sea, preserving in their form the light, rhythm and memory of the Mediterranean landscape.

From the Girona Provincial Council, its president, Miquel Noguer Planas, has placed the exhibition within the thematic cycle dedicated to water that Les Bernardes is promoting this 2026. According to Noguer, Joan Mateu's work fully dialogues with the desire to explore the intersections between thought, territory and contemporary creation, proposing a poetic reading of the Mediterranean coast where nature, identity and culture appear deeply intertwined.

For his part, the director of Les Bernardes, Robert Fàbrega, relates the proposal to the classic idea of Aither, the fifth element, historically associated with spirituality, light and the intangible. A reflection that finds echo in an exhibition that transcends the physical representation of the landscape to explore its most subtle and evocative dimensions.

With Mar de terra, terra de mar , Joan Mateu presents a mature and expansive work that expands the limits of his visual language. The combination of painting and ceramics, together with a look deeply linked to the territory, makes this exhibition one of the outstanding events of the artistic season in the Girona region and a new chapter in the career of one of the most unique creators of the Catalan contemporary scene.