MIQUEL BARCELÓ

In autumn 2023, Museum Jorn will present the first comprehensive solo exhibition in Scandinavia with one of Southern Europe's most acclaimed living artists, Miquel Barceló (b. 1957).

The Spanish artist Miquel Barceló has enjoyed international recognition for his expressive and inimitable works that unfold across materials and forms of expression since representing Spain at the Documenta exhibition in Kassel in 1982. With this exhibition Museum Jorn presents Barceló’s unique ceramic production.

Barceló’s ceramic universe is based on the cultural functions of clay and the Catalan pictorial crafts traditions, but also on modern bricks, which to Barceló represent the rapidly constructed hotel developments in Mallorca. Clay is specific and universal, natural and cultural, and these are the characteristics that Barceló seeks to capture in his ceramic works. Barceló draws inspiration from volcanoes, the sea, cave paintings and ethnographic building techniques such as Malian Dogon architecture, where clay acts as a supporting structure as well as ornamentation.

By showcasing Barceló’s artistic elements from initial idea to finished work and the breadth of his extensive ceramic production, we get a close look at the creative process itself. In addition to more than 100 ceramic works and 16 sketchbooks, the exhibition includes Barceló’s waste pit, filled with his flawed, discarded and destroyed ceramic efforts, has been recreated and is included in the exhibition. The pit itself is an overwhelming and thought-provoking installation illustrating the aesthetic requirements the artist wanted to satisfy in his works, but also giving an impression of an extensive and experimental process.

The Human Animal

The sub-title of the exhibition, The Human Animal, refers to a text Asger Jorn wrote about Franz Kafka, one of the most influential authors from the 21st century. In 1941 Asger Jorn introduced Kafka to a Danish audience with his translation and publication of a selection of Kafka’s short stories in the journal Helhesten. Despite having since gained cult status, Kafka’s works were not general reading in Denmark at the time, nor were they widely translated into Danish until 20 years later. Until now a neglected part of his work, Jorn’s translations have been brought to life by the renowned Spanish artist Miquel Barceló who, in forty-one brand-new works on paper, has drawn inspiration from Jorn’s work on Kafka. By means of these works Barceló builds a bridge between Jorn and Kafka.

The exhibition is supported by

The Spanish Embassy
Beckett-Fonden
Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond
Knud Højgaards Fond
SparNord Fonden
Toyota Fonden
Overretssagfører L. Zeuthens Mindelegat
Dronning Margrethes og Prins Henriks Fond
Lemvigh-Müller Fonden