ENTREMESTRES «DRAPERY»
Iconography, graphics, and other representations of Drapery in the history of painting
By Cori Mercadé and Assumpta Bassas
Saturday 19th January 2019
From 11am to 2pm and from 3.30 to 6pm (shared lunch is proposed)
Venue: ACVic. Centre d’Arts Contemporànies [Sant Francesc, 1. 08500 Vic]
Workshop coinciding with the exhibition Draps, by Cori Mercadé at El Temple Romà de Vic.
Organized by: ACVic and El Temple Romà de Vic
The workshop includes two guided visits:
- Guided visit by artist Cori Mercadé to her exhibition DRAPS at Temple Romà in Vic, followed by a brief visit to a selection of works at Museu Episcopal de Vic.
REQUIREMENTS
Participants must bring a piece of cloth to work with.
FEE
10 € (8 € for Amics d’ACVic and members of H. Associació per a les Arts Contemporànies).
Entry to the Museu Episcopal de Vic: Teachers may enter free by showing their pass card from the Generalitat de Catalunya.
Bookings for the workshop will end on Wednesday 16th January. Please note that there is a limited number of places, which will be prioritised according to the date upon which payment has been received. Also please note that the course will only take place should the minimum attendance requirement be fulfilled.
INTRODUCTION
The workshop "Entremestres" is an encounter between a practising artist and a group of teachers who believe in creativity and human relationships as a basis for keeping education, in the maternal sense, alive and active. This one-day workshop represents an opportunity to access the creative process of a contemporary artist, allowing participants to create a relational experience and to share and to grow each teacher’s the intuitions, knowledge and horizons. At the core of the proposal is "to think with the hands", that is to say, to carry out an artistic practice which allows skill and body to become integrated, also allowing for experimentation using simple materials.
"Entremestres" will be led by artist Cori Mercadé, with the practice of "unprejudiced sight" and "drapery". Participants will reacquaint themselves with religious-based iconographies in the history of painting, leaving stereotypical discourses to one side. Mercadé will discover the knowledge inscribed within the paintings’ materiality, read from the perspective of a woman artist who interprets the hegemonic narration with unprejudiced eyes. Participants will be guided by the creative process that the artist herself has developed for her projects, based upon researching and understanding painting and its history as a catalogue of emotions, sensations and ideas available to enhance the viewer’s creative perspective.
WORKSHOP CONTENTS
The workshop will include 2 guided visits.
Morning:
- Welcome and work plan.
- Guided visit by the curator and the artist CORI MERCADÉ to her exhibition DRAPS at the Roman Temple in Vic
- A brief visit to a selection of works from the Episcopal Museum of Vic.
Afternoon:
- At ACVic, workshop and debate, moderated by the artist and the curator.
The visit will follow a common strand proposed by the artist, DRAPERY, presented as:
• Objects represented in diverse images studied by the artist (“La Pietat”, “La Verònica”, “La Santa Generació”, etc.).
• Support bases for various artworks (in particular, “drap de pinzell”, the support base for an altarpiece in Vic).
• In terms of material, “drapery” understood as a pattern of lines
Selected cloths, and the themes which they suggest:
- Patience: cloth representing labour, time passing, patience, making.
- Erotic: cloth as erotic play, a game of covering and discovering.
- Care: cloth as shelter, as wrapping and covering.
- Symbol: cloth as a symbol, an allegory, an attribution.
- Supporting cloth: Painting on boards, the poor relation of wood retable or tapestry.
We will look at how it is made, how it is painted, what compositional function it performs in the whole image, etc. Guided by an artist who focuses her research and her work on painting allows us to look at formal aspects which are lost in an historiographical view.
We will look at its iconographic and symbolic value, the general theme and the specific interest of each artist. An open perspective, appreciating interpretations and suggestions which allow us to connect with our own questions and experiences of life, and to understand that paintings may become an inspiration to learn from emotions, sensations, moods and affections.
The workshop
The works and the talks during the guided tours will determine the personal theme that each participant will work with, considering the workshop as a personal and creative research exercise. Which kind of cloth would you like to draw ? The cloth of patience? The erotic cloth? The caring cloth?
Different techniques will be be suggested to address the drawing on «drapery» which until recently was part of the artist's training.
Participants will «perform and play» with different colours and textures of cloths ( crumpling, moulding, folding, etc.) to then try out their representation afterwards.
What story do we want to tell through "draping"? How can we do it?
Participants will draw on paper using different techniques (Graphite powder, pencil and eraser, tempera, collage, charcoal, always striving in our drawing to transcend the academic exercise) Participants will surprise themselves, planning and completing a satisfying and pleasant drawing in one afternoon.
WHO IS IT AIMED AT?
Teachers of primary and secondary schools, and lecturers taking university degree courses. Also students and other educational professionals, and anyone interested in art and pedagogy.
COURSE BY
Cori Mercadé. Artist and teacher
Her artistic research is centred upon painting and its history, with a special interest in the relationship which painting posits between ourselves and the world in general. She researches equally the historic tradition and the present day mediatised by the reproduced image. Her projects have been exhibited in galleries and art centres both at home and abroad. She also works in the educational field with projects for institutions such as M| A | C (Mataró Art Contemporani) or Barcelona’s Col·legi Montserrat, and in her own art centres, BLANCDEguix at El Masnou, and recently at TAULADEGUIX in Barcelona.
She writes scripts and designs performances and events which unite music and painting, “Pictofonies” (one of her recent performances took place in L’Atlàntida, Vic) https://latlantidavic.cat/programacio/general/lorquestra-cambra-vic-corals-osonenques/
The essence of her educational focus is the creative process of her own pictorial artistic practice through projects, a constant research which is transformed into her work as a pedagogue, giving it the shape of an animate wish.
Assumpta Bassas Vila. University lecturer who likes to draw, to make clay and to walk
Mother of two, housewife and doctor in Art History from the University of Barcelona, where she has taught since 1995 in various degree courses (Fine Arts, Communication and Cultural Industries, and Art History). She likes to research contemporary woman artists, and feminist perspectives in art history. She has curated contemporary arts exhibitions and educational programmes (created jointly with artists and teachers/lecturers) dedicated to expanding the practical skills of artists. She co-created “Entremestres” (since 2010) with María José González and also "Les Juliettes" (also with Patrícia Martínez) at LaBonne, Centre de Cultura de Dones (Barcelona, juliol 2018).
She is currently preparing a book about the channeled poetic texts and writings of Silvia Gubern, the artist whose work she studied for her doctoral thesis, and about whom she has written various articles: "Un conceptual espiritual? Silvia Gubern, Quan l'art és nodreix del silenci" (A conceptual spiritual? Silvia Gubern, When art is nurtured by silence) http://quadern.fundacioars.org/un-conceptual-espiritual-a-catalunya-silvia-gubern-quan-lart-es-nodreix-del-silenci/ and "Visions quotidianes i visualitats contemporànies: els dibuixos canalitzats de Silvia Gubern" (Everyday Visions and Contemporary Visualities: the channeled drawings of Silvia Gubern) published by Bonet, Pilar (ed.) in Josefa Tolrà. Dibuix força fluídica ( Josefa Tolrà: Fluidic Force Drawing) Mataró: Ajuntament de Mataró / ACM, 2014: 157- 165.
Workshop coinciding with the exhibition Draps, by Cori Mercadé at El Temple Romà de Vic.
Organized by: ACVic and El Temple Romà de Vic
Image: Cori Mercadé. Verònica, 2013-2014
