Against techno-barbarity

Along narrow roads populated with trees that throw shade on a lane that barely sees any traffic, we reach the workshop that sculptor Joan Pere Català Roig built with his own hands in Pórtol. The sun is setting and Joan Pere and Albert Pinya stop a moment to contemplate the beauty of nature. Silently, unhurriedly.

Joan Pere and Albert share same way of seeing and confronting life. They met four years ago, through a mutual friend. And they immediately comprehended that they spoke the same language. “Neither one is more important than the other. In our case, one plus one makes one. The most transgressive thing is to give and share. It’s curious how today, something that goes back to the era of cave dwellers, when tribes cooperated and helped each other, is seen as revolutionary”.

For months they have been working on Cambra de Combustió (Combustion Chamber), the exhibition due to be inaugurated on 7 July at Palma’s Es Baluard Museum. “We had exhibited in Milan before – for us it’s easier for a gallery to come from outside of Spain than to put on a show here. In Mallorca, the economic model is much more geared towards tourism than culture. To the point that sometimes, laws are passed to regulate a tourism-related matter which are detrimental to the Balearics”, they say.

The first contact between the two was simple: “we met up one day, Albert got a feel of how he could paint my pieces, without any kind of rush or pressure - we wanted to do a good job. Iconography has been adapted to piece, and piece to iconography, in a natural manner”, Català Roig explains.

Their Combustion Chamber is “a place where ideas bubble up and the way in which we demand manufacture, as opposed to techno-barbarity. Through the name, we were also interested in giving ceramics a different category, in a contemporary art context”, Albert explains. 

“This work is a protest against everyday life in society, where everyone wants immediate results and sometimes, that can backfire on you. The world of ceramics can be disgraceful, there are people who think they’ve learned a trade when all they’ve done is do a course for a few months. To learn a trade you need ten or fifteen years, you have to fall down and pick yourself up over and again”, says Joan Pere.

For this ceramicist, the word artisan has been pimped out. “You go to any supermarket, and the word ‘artisanal’ accompanies you from the moment you enter until you walk out. So now it’s become fashionable, I don’t like being labelled an artisan, it detracts from what I do, although I also think that the word ‘artist’ is too much for me sometimes. I simply work with my hands, trying to ensure every piece is a work of art”.

For Albert Pinya, shunning labels is a must. “I have tried to define myself as a high-class escort or a creative humanist. I like to pursue painting because it’s primitive. The more I refine my discourse, the closer I am to the caveman”.

Albert and Joan Pere lived and worked together for the time it took to produce the works in the exhibition. “It’s a kind of co-existence because [...]

--------

Read this article in full in IN PALMA 71. And if you like, subscribe to IN PALMA for 1 year and get the next 4 issues of the magazine delivered to your home.