Al cistell, 2017
Isabel Banal’s piece, In the Basket, from 2017, is part of a series in which an anonymous body is placed inside various everyday domestic containers, such as a carrycot, a bucket, a plastic fruit box and different types of baskets. In this case, the body picks up a basket, an object that invokes tradition, the countryside and peasantry, and which today has been relegated to folkloric status. It is a gesture that focuses the gaze on the weight that tradition has had in the development of Western cultures and on the fact that a good part of the work was done by women. The anonymity of the body in the image also portrays the forgottenness of the figure of the woman within a world – the rural world – principally associated with men and masculine roles. The tension generated by the body, faced with the impossibility of holding on, also generates a distortion when looking at it.
In the Basket addresses issues such as tradition and the preservation of the knowledge of yesteryear, such as ecology; climate change and the cycles of nature; and capitalism and postmodern society. It also touches on gender issues and the physical and emotional burdens of tasks ancestrally linked to women.
Technical details
- Original title:
- Al cistell
- Registration number:
- AJC.0006
- Artist:
- Banal i Xifré, Isabel
- Date created:
- 2017
- Fonds:
- MACBA Collection. Barcelona City Council long-term (in process of being incorporated)
- Object type:
- Photograph
- Media:
- Digital print on polyester canvas mounted on lightbox
- Dimensions:
- 70 x 70 x 10 cm (height x width x depth)
- Credits:
- MACBA Collection. Long-term loan of the Barcelona City Council. Work purchased by the Barcelona City Council through MACBA for the ‘Call for submissions: acquisition of pieces for the promotion of creators of contemporary art’
- Copyright:
- © Isabel Banal
- It has accessibility resources:
- No
The MACBA Collection features Catalan, Spanish and international art and, although it includes works from the 1920s onwards, its primary focus is on the period between the 1960s and the present.
For more information on the work or the artist, please consult MACBA's Library. To request a loan of the work, please write to colleccio [at] macba.cat.
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