Pitu Gómez Canals
Graphic designer
Windows
From the surrounding fields, the vision of the village is that of a wall of dry stones pierced by hundreds of windows. Each of them frames the permanent contradiction of human beings between the calm of a sheltered existence and the restlessness of an outdoor life. Inside and outside. Light and shadow. Calm and anxiety.
That’s why they come in all types. Some long for the horizon. Others for the shelter of home.
Look closely. Pau’s dog sticks his head out of the window. His howl accompanies him like a basso continuo.
There is a house facing north. The cierzo flows through one of the windows and closes the bedroom shutters. The thud awakens the elders who still tremble with every crash.
Joana, from the bakery, sunbathes at the window of the room. Her skin will forever retain the smell of bread from the house where she was born.
Inside an attic there is a lightbulb that turns on and off. Pere, the youngest in Quimeta’s house, discovers the magic of light and imagines how the sun and the moon illuminate day and night.
Mercè is content, smiles at the passersby and claps.
In Teresa’s house they bathe the little ones. From the shoes with holes comes a beach full of buttons.
I don’t know who that girl is, that flies out of a window and pursues a flock of goats.
Neither do I know that man who is enraptured by the passing clouds nor that sad woman who returns from a trip and looks disconsolately at the horizon.
With a mirror in her hand and her cheeks well made up, Pepa shines a light on Josep’s window.
This happens only in the summer. Because in winter, when the cold makes you grit your teeth and the day becomes shorter, the streets are empty and the windows sleep, sheltered from wind and foreigners.
In the city I have also found windows, but I had better not speak of them. There are also balconies like those of the street where I was born. Although they are first cousins, the balconies are more conceited and they like to dress up with flowery hats on holidays.
I return to Cadaqués after being around Terra Alta and again I reencounter the feeling that the village windows offer me. Hundreds of windows gathered in the hideout of Hort d’en Sanés, each of them hiding the passions, anxieties and joys of their authors. You only need a curious eye to discover them. Look carefully.
They are fragments that explain how the return and the journey, shelter and despair, truth and dream feed this creative spirit charged with memory.
For a Pau and a Riba
Mercedes Barberà Rusiñol
Director of the Mini Print International of Cadaqués
I would like to begin these lines by noting the unalterable perseverance and vitality of the Mini Print International of Cadaques, despite the passage of time since its inception in 1981.
The artistic and technical level of the works received continues to be extraordinary, reflecting the exploration of new technologies. The use of more ecological materials and experimentation with new acids, inks and papers on new plates that are easier to etch, open new horizons in the world of contemporary prints.
The exhibition in the Taller Galeria Fort of Cadaques has received a great influx of local as well as international visitors, especially from the different states of the USA. We welcome them because their enthusiasm and admiration nourish the Mini Print with life.
This summer the English artist Arvon Wellen has left us. He was a Mini Print winner in 1992 and came to Cadaques as a juror. He was enthusiastic about the village and decided to remain among us for the rest of his life together with his wife Jude. His loss has been very painful to all of us who knew him.
This year we were privileged to have all of last year’s winners acting as jurors for this 43rd exhibition. They were Josy Malagrida of Barcelona, Marianne Badertscher of Switzerland, Luciano Segurajáuregui of Mexico and Kevin Cummins and MB Flanders of the United States. Their solo shows aroused much interest and were very will received.
The Mini Print International of Cadaques exhibition in Wingfield Barns (England) continues to be enthusiastically received by the British public, consolidating its longstanding presence in the region. We are grateful to Ian Chance for his continued dedication and enthusiasm in this initiative.
The Min Print’s itinerancy takes us to the Tharrats Foundation of Graphic Art in Pineda del Mar where it is widely awaited by artists and public from all over the Maresme region. It offers a unique opportunity for the participants to visit and compare their experiences.
Later, during the Christmas holidays, the Mini Print travels to the gallery L’Etanged’Art in Bages, France. This itineracy attracts many people from European towns and cities. It receives widespread radio and press coverage which amplifies its dissemination.
We take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the local press such as La Vanguardia, the Setmanari de l’Empordà, El Punt Avui and Hora Nova as well as the magazines Bonart and Revistart for their invaluable contribution to the dissemination of the diverse activities organized during the Summer by the Mini Print.
Finally, I wish to express our profound gratitude for the many enthusiastic messages received from artists as well as the general public expressing their admiration for the continuity and the unique essence of the Mini Print. It is the participating artists that make this possible.
We always enthusiastically look forward to their participation.
We continue onward!