José Corredor-Matheos
Art critic
We ought to have a special celebration for the 15th anniversary of the Mini Print. I do not see it difficult for anyone interested in the Arts to imagine the effort and creativity necessary to keep it going, especially considering that it is a private initiative.
This intense task, carried out for a decade and a half, has brought its organizers the satisfaction of having accomplished their aims. The interest awakened from the start has been rising. Prints from all over the world arrive year after year and its prestige, due to the excellent organization and the rigorous concession of awards, is fully recognized on the international art scene.
It is important to point out the fact that this activity is centered on prints, because of the interest the different printmaking techniques deserve and because of the necessity that it exists for increasing their dissemination.
Despite the acceptation achieved by the print in the last decades, there is still some misunderstandings by the public. Thus it is not quite understood that each sheet is a true original that conserves the trace of the artist’s personal work and is numbered and signed by him/her. The taboo of the unique work leads to the conception of this condition as exclusive to paintings or drawings – we refer, naturally, to creations on a flat surface – without perceiving the artist’s direct action on the plate. On the other hand, the concept of a unique work is questionable nowadays when video, virtual reality and electronics and computer sciences are going to produce important changes in art. Prints, with their capacity for suggestion and the freedom they give to the artist, shape an art with more possibilities in the future than some might expect.
Several factors have contributed to the success of the Mini Print. The very idea is itself both original and attractive. The small format which makes shipment easy, its continuity, the place where the exhibition is held, Cadaqués, such a beautiful village with its long artistic tradition, have played an important role.
However, all this would have been insufficient without a true enthusiasm from the beginning. Nothing in art, actually nothing in any human act, has true life without enthusiasm. And it is thanks to Pascual Fort, an artist himself and an enterprising man, together with his family which continues the task with the same fervor, that the Mini Print is able to celebrate its fifteenth edition.
The world is getting smaller and art more intemational. Iniciatives such as the Mini Print make the net of relations denser and richer. Catalonia, which has shown its intemational vocation and has provided many first line artists, has, in the Mini Print, one of the keystones of international graphic art.
Together with large enterprises, the work of institutions or complex private organizations, actions such as the Mini Print are absolutely necessary. Its light structure enables it to compete against the heavy structures with certain advantages. Against the large artistic armies of peace with their heavy armament, moving slowly, the Mini Print, with its rapid intervention force of peace, which travels with the light luggage of private correspondence and has no need for the spaces of great cities nor of large museums, will easily find a place for our home.
Congratulations, then, to the Mini Print, its organizers and the participating artists for these first fifteen years and with best wishes for the new millennium.
Mercedes Barberà Rusiñol
Director of the Mini Print International of Cadaques
The 15th Mini Print International of Cadaqués has been distinguished not only by the high quality and quantity of participating artists but also by the large number of traveling shows. During May, June and July the show was part of the Wingfield Arts and Music Festival in England, as in past years, and it has stimulated the interest of English collectors and the public in general.
In June the exhibition was shown by the Arts Council in the Joensuun Taidemuseum in Finland. The Mini Print was welcomed with enthusiasm, and enjoyed great success. A large number of Finnish printmakers and art lovers visited the show.
Of course, during July, August and September, as every year, the show in Cadaqués formed part of the cultural life of the village and was visited by a large number of people interested in the graphic arts. Many visitors who previously were primarily spectators have now become real collectors.
The exhibition was also held in Canet de Mar during August and September. The show has become such a popular cultural event, that the number of visitors to the Mini Print has increased.
In October the show travelled to Bages, a little village in southern France where, in the Gallery L’Etangd’Art, it enjoyed the admiration of the public from Bages as well as from nearby villages and towns.
Special mention must be made of the interest aroused by the solo exhibitions of the artists selected the year before. Leonid Zikeev, Sandro Bracchitta and Robert Jancovic attended the openings of their shows, and during their stay they formed the jury for the 15th Mini Print International of Cadaqués.
This year the catalog was published thanks to the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Spanish Government and the Culture Department of the Catalan Government. I thank Mr. Fernando Perera, Director of the National Center of Exhibitions and Mr. Miquel García, Fine Arts Delegate of the Catalan Government, for their recognition of the Mini Print International of Cadaqués as a messanger to the world of Spanish and Catalan cultures.
I wish to express my extreme gratitude to these participating artists whose presence has made the 15th Mini Print International of Cadaqués possible and look foward to meeting the future works from the artists that will form the 16th edition of the Mini Print International of Cadaqués that we are already organizing.