Martí Romaní
Bookworld professional
For yet another year, Mercedes Barberá’s effort and determination make possible the celebration in Cadaqués and other international sites of the most important printmaking competition in the world in the number of participants and works presented. The effort began in 1981 when, with her husband Pascual Fort, they combined, with great vision, the experience and contacts acquired during the period they ran the Galería Fort in New York City. For many years she has also counted on the enthusiastic support and dedication of her family.
In the early ‘80s Cadaqués recovered a certain cultural and creative effervescence, and various projects and activities related to the world of art, music and literature, among others, were initiated. But if anyone had told Mercedes and Pascual that the competition they were launching at that time – prints in all techniques and a uniform format of 10×10 centimetres – would come to have global transcendence and its current magnitude, they would have been considered illuminated or visionary (there was something of that). And truly there is nothing that can’t be achieved when one has clear ideas, a wide vision, persistence and an infinite capacity for work.
From the very beginning I was caught up by their proposal by its harmony with a similar initiative that we began in 1981 in the bookshop/gallery La Sirena of Cadaqués. It was the “Zero-Figura Cadaqués”, an exhibition of original work in a unified small format, the 0 Figure, 18×14 centimetres, with – in that case – a unified price. It became a reality thanks to the impulse, the contacts and the advice of Joan Josep Tharrats, based on a previous experience in the 1960’s at the Sala Gaspar in Barcelona. Pascual Fort participated in that exhibition as an artist.
The uniqueness of the Mini Print of Cadaqués is that from a small corner of our country it extends throughout the world. That indeed is an external projection of Catalonia and Catalan culture in capital letters.
The universality of the Mini Print is its great value, the clearest example that the artistic idiom is universal and knows no language or border limits in its comings and goings across the planet. Each year the proposal is launched from Cadaqués throughout the world. It is taken up by hundreds of artists from different continents and dozens of countries, that transform this proposal into a work of art, that once created, travels from anyplace in the world back to Cadaqués. Once the exhibition has opened, the visiting public – which in Cadaqués, as we know, comes from every imaginable place – acquires the works and takes them back home in a return trip around the world in a global dance of love for the art work, its creation and enjoyment. In addition, the fact that the prize winners become the jury reinforces this magic wheel that I wish to be infinite.
The emotion that the Fort-Barberá family places in this task is highly contagious and transmits its fruit to many other people and families – from Cadaqués as well as foreigners, locals or passers-by. And within families it extends from generation to generation like the concentric circles of the water when we throw a stone.
My own family is an example of what I am saying. Every summer since 1981 we incorporate the pleasure and custom of acquiring a print in the Mini Print, a custom that we transmitted to our daughter from the time she was very little and which she readily adopted. For her as well, this visit to the Mini-Print every summer to acquire a print became a ritual. This custom has continued with her son, our grandson, who at 8 years old has his own collection hanging on the walls of his room, following the exciting ritual of his parents and grandparents of visiting the show every summer to select his print.
That’s how you guarantee the continuity of cultural and artistic projects – and of so many other things – transmitting from one generation to the next the legacy of rituals, the emotion and the taste for a job well done.
Many thanks Fort-Barberá family, always by your side, courage and onward!
Mercedes Barberà Rusiñol
Director of the Mini Print International of Cadaqués
We are pleased to note that artist participation in the 41st Mini Print International of Cadaqués is back to normal after the global menace of the invisible enemy which is weakening thanks to scientific investigation.
The exhibition in the Taller Galeriia Fort has received visitors from many Spanish towns and cities who were unaware of its existence and who discovered the relevance of printmaking in the world of art. They thus give value to the pedagogical function that the Mini Print exercises thanks to the artistic quality of the works exhibited. Our French neighbors also visited us with great assiduity from various parts of the country, as did Belgians, Dutch, Americans, Germans, Italians… We are grateful to all for their warm presence.
The solo shows of last year’s winners were joined by those of the previous 2 years which had been postponed due to the pandemic. They all merited great praise for their artistic and technical quality. The Catalans Elvira Rodriguez and Mercé Grifé, the Valencian Mercedes Balaguer Mitjans and the Lithuanian Daliute Ivanauskaite visited us. They served as jury during their stay.
Due to the difficulty – or impossibility – of travel from England, Japan, Poland or Belgium, the prizewinners of those countries were unable to serve as jury in Cadaqués. Because of this we invited the professor of art history Vinni Lucherini and the curator and art adviser Alexandre de Prat to collaborate in this difficult task. They generously accepted for which we are sincerely grateful.
As usual the Catalan National Library opened its doors on Saint George’s Day to exhibit the latest prizewinning works that have become part of the Mini Print collection that they treasure in their graphic section.
This year the Mini Print has been able to exhibit in Wingfield Barns with normality. Anna Fielding O’Farrell’s interest and efficiency managed to overcome the Mini Print’s difficulty for traveling outside the European Union caused by Brexit. Many thanks Anna, and thanks also to Ian Chance our great and beloved collaborator and promoter of the Mini Print in England.
At year’s end, the gallery l’Etangd’Art directed by Martine Trouïs has exhibited the Mini Print. It is always well received by the press and admired by visitors which also include some of the participating artists from all of Europe.
The local and national press informed about the Mini Print’s varied activities. Bonart, a pioneer among Catalan magazines devoted to contemporary art, and Revistart, a national publication, inform their readers, year after year about the Mini Print. We are grateful to both for their faithful collaboration. The newspaper La Vanguardia published a very complete article by Josep Playà, which helped increase the number of new visitors. The Setmanari de l’Empordà, Hora Nova, and El Punt Avui also wrote about the various solo shows, an always necessary and welcome cooperation.
We hope that all the artists who could not freely participate in the Mini Print during the last two years because of the adverse circumstances will be able to do so in the next one.
Thanks to all the artists for their constant participation in the Mini Print. Their presence has helped its normalization and continuity.
Art cannot and must not disappear.