Spring 2021
Territori Contemporani 1/5
by Frederic Montornés

A relaxed conversation on the terrace of a bar, the discovery that both Albert Jordana and I were and are village boys and that there are museums in our villages led us to ask ourselves the following question:

– How many people – both from other villages and from our own – know and visit our museums?

Two years after that apparently innocent question, the Xarxa de Televisions Locals began to broadcast the TV programme Territori Contemporani, a programme of relaxed interviews – just like that conversation on the terrace of a bar – aimed at making visible the work carried out by our museums, but also any platform for the dissemination of contemporary art and thought that operates in our counties. That is to say, in that territory, often wasteland in the eyes of those who live in the big city, full of surprises, stimulating proposals, honest programmes, well-sized projects and, above all, the enthusiasm, always necessary, of the people behind them who fight to keep culture alive, even if the volume of their voice is not heard clearly enough.

But between that first question and the drift of our programme towards contemporary art, it was necessary, in addition to questioning the “popularity” of our museums, to find common ground between our professional interests. And this common ground came from a second question:

– If the museums of the territory (perhaps) don’t have it easy to survive, how do the platforms that opt for contemporary art operate in a punctual or systematic way?

This question, and the desire to say something about it, was what motivated us to explore the territory through actions, so accessible to everyone, such as observing, moving around, asking questions, letting people speak, listening and putting ourselves in the other’s shoes. Actions simple enough to allow us, on our journeys through Catalonia, to get to know at first hand the spaces that strive to disseminate contemporary art. But why would we go to some spaces and not to others, and what would make us go from one place to another?

Well, in the only possible way: by following the trail of the artists, that is, those who, with their work, give content to the facilities we were interested in.

The structure of the programme is a reflection of all this. In each chapter there are three interviews: two with the people in charge of the two spaces we visit in each chapter and one with the artist who has passed through the two spaces through their participation in an exhibition -individual or group-, giving a workshop, taking part in a round table, giving a conference, doing a residency…. researching their work. Together with these chapters, we also conceived other chapters which, in the form of essays, are intended to deal with subjects as wide-ranging and different as artistic interventions in the public space, photography festivals, artist publications, vinyl as an artistic support, the role of private foundations or artistic calls for proposals. Always, however, with the participation of artists contributing their point of view.

Throughout 50 chapters, as well as getting to know the work of artists of different ages, interests and expressive languages, we have also visited all kinds of spaces. Spaces that, for one reason or another, have always confirmed us that the reason for which we have gone to them had sufficient weight to justify our journey.

The most recommendable route to access the contents of our programme is to enter our website (http://www.alacarta.cat/territori-contemporani) and once there, to travel for fifty stages, viewing one chapter after another, following the line of one of the 53 artists we have interviewed or directly accessing any of the 98 contemporary art platforms we have visited all over Catalonia.

Although I could talk about any of the spaces we have visited with the enthusiasm transmitted to us by those in charge of them, the route I would propose to start a journey through our programme would have four cardinal points, one for each province. Four spaces that, for some reason, caught my attention in a special way.

In Girona: Arbar, Centre d’art i cultura, in the Santa Cruz Valley (http://votv.alacarta.cat/territori-contemporani/tall/el-centre-dart-i-cultura-arbar). For its insistence on carrying out an annual programme, conceived in different stages and highlighting the value of a work process that takes into account the relationship between art and nature.

In Lleida: CAN in Farrera (http://votv.alacarta.cat/territori-contemporani/tall/centre-dart-i-natura-es-una-residencia-de-treball-). To offer unbeatable conditions for artistic research, with a commitment to almost absolute silence in an impressive and often surprising environment.

In Tarragona: The Museum of Rural Life of the Carulla Foundation, in l’Espluga de Francolí (http://votv.alacarta.cat/territori-contemporani/tall/museu-de-la-vida-rural). For its work in favour of memory, reflection and sustainable transformation from the rural world, without neglecting contemporaneity.

In Barcelona: El Museu Molí Paperer de Capellades (http://votv.alacarta.cat/territori-contemporani/tall/museu-moli-paperer). Because it was the type of space we looked at first as an example of an initiative in which to direct our steps. It was what we were looking for: it is a local museum with a regular programme, sensitive to contemporary art trends.

Based on these proposals and those found on our website, it’s time to start making your own routes. We’ve been doing it for four years….

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Text by Frederic Montornés for GRAF. Fede has been a freelance art critic and curator since 1990.

GRAF invites Frederic Montornés to present the Territori Contemporani archive and to lead the next four GRAF Routes through the four provinces of Catalonia.