Collectable

Art as CATHARSIS. Some of the worlds evoked in the MACBA Collection exhibition

The Collectables of the Year Thirty

Scenes created in a state of transit by Josefa Tolrà. The purifying dreams of the Amazonian peoples photographed by Claudia Andujar. Rosario Zorraquín’s drawings and words dictated by the unconscious. As you move around the rooms, as in the title of the exhibition, Like a Dance of Starlings, you become aware of the cathartic, transformative power of the artistic gaze. Awaiting you are the atavistic figures of Josep Uclés and the surreal characters of Antonio Beneyto; the labyrinthine experience displayed by Àngels Ribé; Magda Bolumar’s universe of constellations and the demonic and dream-like beings of August Puig and Joan Ponç. A substantial part of the exhibition celebrating thirty years of the MACBA Collection focuses on the artistic practices that allude to the idea of catharsis. A liberating and purifying notion that, while originally referring to Aristotle’s Poetics, has gradually incorporated a concept that runs through that many cultural fields. Like a Dance of Starlings invites us to travel through subterranean worlds and deep connections, through certainties that eschew reason and realities that are not always physical. You’re all welcome, let yourselves go.