Exhibitions

The peasantry against the imaginary

Contrapastoral. Art and Farming questions the idealized view of the rural world and proposes a critical reading of the transformations that have marked Catalan farming over the last 150 years.

bonart l'espluga de francolí - 02/11/26

The exhibition Contrapastoral. Art and Farming, curated by Pau Minguet, can be visited at the Terra de l'Espluga Museum in Francolí from November 6, 2026 to March 7, 2027. After its visit to the Morera Museum in Lleida, the exhibition arrives with an invitation to look at the rural world beyond clichés and to understand, through art and culture, the tensions, contradictions and challenges that Catalan farming faces.

The abandonment of the countryside, the expansion of intensive farming, food sustainability, the loss of farmland to the benefit of alternative energy oligopolies and the persistence of the debate between city and countryside are some of the issues that articulate this journey. Issues that outline a territory in transformation and highlight the distance between the imaginary built around rural life and the material conditions that determine the present and future of farming.

In literature, painting and other artistic manifestations, the pastoral genre has historically contributed to idealizing rural life. This bucolic vision, often constructed from the cities, has fueled a representation of the rural world that has left its complexity, conflicts and contradictions in the background. Contrapastoral questions this visual and cultural heritage to open up new perspectives on the countryside, its ways of life and the relationships it establishes with contemporary society.

Organized in different areas, the exhibition puts historical works and current creations into dialogue, generating counterpoints and tensions that allow us to trace, through art, the almost anthropological evolution of a part of the Catalan rural world. The journey thus becomes a critical reading of the last 150 years, in which images of the past confront the realities of the present and question the narratives that have shaped our perception of the countryside.

With work by nearly fifty artists, the exhibition brings together different generations, languages and approaches to the territory. Antoni Abad, Ermengol, Paula Artés, Isabel Banal, Joan Brossa, Jordi Calafell, Pere Català Pic, Marta R. Chust, Curro Claret, Joan Codina Donaire, Pep Companys, Leandre Cristòfol, Lleonard Delshams, Roc Domingo Puig, Aitor Estévez, Joan Fontcuberta, Carles Fontserè, Baldomer Gili Roig, Josep Guinovart, Albert Gusi, Gerard Joan, Ignasi López, Fina Miralles, Josep Maria Miró Rosinach, Asunción Molinos, Jaume Morera, Nil Nebot, Olga Olivera-Tabeni, Perejaume, Esther Remacha, Elisenda Rosàs, Olga Sacharoff, Marc Sellarés, Ton Sirera, Ismael Smith, Joaquim Vayreda and Guillem Viladot, among others, form a mosaic of perspectives that dismantles the rural postcard to place the countryside at the center of a highly topical cultural, social and political debate.