Antoni Miralda: MIRALDA MADEINUSA

The exhibition MIRALDA MADEINUSA will recreate and document for the first time and in a comprehensive manner the 15 projects made by Antoni Miralda in the United States from 1972 to 1999. Curated by Vicent Todolí and produced by MACBA, the exhibition will be shown in Barcelona from October 22, 2016 to April 9, 2017.

MACBA dedicates a major exhibition to the work of the Catalan artist Antoni Miralda (Terrassa, 1942). With a career spanning five decades, Miralda has turned something as universal as food into a creative universe. Using a non-conformist language, baroque and full of humour, that celebrates the senses and brings art closer to life, he undertakes an ethnological exploration of human behaviour. Moving to Paris in 1962, Miralda pioneered a type of work and collective ritual that celebrated the ceremonial act of eating by using colour and its symbolism. In 1972, he relocated to New York, where he initiated a series of participative projects based on the fusion of cultures and their popular manifestations.

The exhibition reconstructs some of the key installations from that time, while offering a wide selection of audiovisual recordings of actions and events, drawings, photographs, sketches, and various documentary materials, most of which are presented here for the first time. This will highlight the scope and complexity of this artist’s projects and the collective nature of his methodology.

Miralda developed a body of work that favoured coexistence in the public space, the ephemeral, a critical and poetic spirit, and humour. The artist challenged the established conventions, encouraging participation, a dialogue with popular culture, direct experience and the questioning of the assumed norms of art and artistic practice.

Among the key works recreated in the exhibition are Breadline (1977), a monumental row or wall of coloured bread presented at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, in 1977; Wheat & Steak (1981), a parade-performance in the streets of Kansas City, an exhibition at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and a collective ceremony at the Kansas City Board of Trade; El Internacional Tapas Bar & Restaurant (1984–86), an experiment that fully integrated cuisine and site-specific art, created in collaboration with the restauranteur Montse Guillén in New York’s TriBeCa; and Honeymoon Project (1986–92), a series of events around a symbolic wedding between the Statue of Liberty in New York and the Columbus Monument in Barcelona, performed by thousands of people in over 20 cities in the world. The exhibition will also feature the large installation Santa Comida (1984–89), an outstanding work from the MACBA Collection celebrating the legacy of Afro-Caribbean culture in America today.

Curator: Vicent Todolí 

Publications
MIRALDA MADEINUSA. With texts by Suzie Aron, Néstor García Canclini, Josep M. Martí Font, John Mason, Muntadas, César Trasobares, James Wines and Vicent Todolí, together with a chronotopography by José Luis Gallero; 630 colour and b/w illustrations; 252 pp. Barcelona: MACBA, 2016. Editions in Catalan, Spanish and English.

Pierre Restany: Miralda! “Une vie d’artiste: (1981) and Dix ans sont passés: le Mont-Serré donne sur la Terrasse (1991). Quaderns portàtils, no. 33, Barcelona: MACBA, 2016. Edition in French.