The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya is one of the reference museums in our country, not only for its extensive and incredible collection or for its wonderful location, from where to contemplate the entire city, but for its ability to continue giving value to our national artists, inventing again and again temporary exhibitions that discover works, names and artistic moments to us.
Back in the 90s, when the museum's photography department began to take shape, one of its hires as an advisor was Pere Formiguera, a multifaceted artist, as he is almost always defined, noted for his facet as a photographer, but also for being a great historian of photography, exhibition curator and collector. A true enthusiast.
Perhaps that is why it makes perfect sense that, finally, a large volume of his work has become part of the MNAC collection, thanks to the extraordinary donation that the Formiguera brothers have made to the museum.
"Photography is not an art. It is a technique. But a photograph can become a work of art," Formiguera used to say.Pere Formiguera has been one of the great photographers of our country. Belonging to the first generation of artists to adopt photography as an expressive medium, his work explores different aspects of this art, seeking to transcend its limits, hybridizing techniques and, through the manipulation of the photograph itself, turning it, precisely, into a work of art: "Photography is not an art. It is a technique. But a photograph can become a work of art," he declared early in his career.
It has been his siblings, Xavier, Anna, and Santi, who, during the years that have passed since his disappearance in 2013, have preserved and maintained the artist's archives, while looking for what to do with such a collection, which had already been transferred to the MNAC for its maintenance. Thus, the donation ending up being made has been almost natural, and the closing of a cycle for Pere Formiguera's trajectory in relation to this exhibition center.
This donation consists of an important collection made up of more than 4,000 photographs, most of them original signed copies, and also includes a large part of his own library, books and magazines in which he published, as well as personal archive material: texts, studies, and personal documentation. A life of compilation and interest in photography.
Perhaps the most interesting artistic aspect of this donation lies in the material related to Formiguera's own creative process, consisting of more than 1,000 slides and 3,900 contact sheets. It is this material that helps us understand how an artist's mind works, and to realize that no creative process is so simple. It is not just looking through the viewfinder and capturing an instant; it is wanting to say or express something more. There is something to see that is on a deeper layer.
The temporary, small-format exhibition presented by the MNAC aims to showcase some of the most prominent photographic series from Formiguera's work, as a summary, to give us a slight idea of the artistic evolution of his work.
From one of his first series La meva amiga, com un vaixell blanc, passing through the exploration and play of his pieces from the 70s, we move towards direct interventions on the photographic material, either during the developing process or directly with paint applications, which transcend the limits of classical photography in search of an expressive language of his own, such as Escenaris d'una guerra, Via Dolorosa, or the appropriationism developed in Diàlegs amb la pintura.
The viewer moves through these more pictorial series that coexist with the beautiful Pixies, or the intimate, and perhaps better known, series Cronos, a project extended over time, which consisted of portraying people from Formiguera's immediate surroundings, once a month for ten years, with ages ranging from two to seventy-five years old.
The donation consists of an important collection of more than 4,000 photographs, most of them original signed copiesAlthough the exhibition seeks to introduce the viewer to Pere Formiguera's photographic work, the resulting synopsis does not do justice to all that the artist has bequeathed us, either due to its brevity, or simply because the reduced exhibition space only allows for a spoon taste, a quick glimpse, a movie trailer. Because it goes without saying that part of his personal archives, or series like Cronos, deserve their own exhibition, even if not in their entirety.
Be that as it may, what is appreciable in these series is the artist's interest in recurring themes, such as the body, identity, the passage of time, or a deep reflection on the nature of the photographic image and representations of reality. His search for a language without borders or limits beyond a specific technique.
The acquisition of this important collection by the MNAC, gives us the opportunity not to lose the legacy of Pere Formiguera, yes, but also to keep alive the memory of our artists, restore their value, place them on the national artistic map and discover them to visitors from all over the world who set foot in the Museu Nacional. The exhibition can be seen until April 21 in the modern art area.