Notes for an Eye Fire. Panorama 21
Akaal / Selene \ Uluru, 2021
Akaal / Selene \ Uluru, 2021 Rosa Tharrats

Notes for an Eye Fire exhibition views. Photo: Miquel Coll

Rosa Tharrats is interested in sensorial and spiritual communication between different ‘species’ of materials and bodies.

Protruding from three of the museum’s columns like sails lashed to the masts of a ship, Akaal / Selene \ Uluru is composed of layers of woven and printed cloth that have been stitched and fused together in combination with composites of homemade bioplastics — polymers made from biological sources such as seaweed and starch that have the potential to alleviate the growing problem of marine pollution.

Inspired by an unidentified photograph of a sailboat from her grandfather’s archive, the seascapes around Cadaqués, and the patchwork sails created by the Vezo people of Madagascar, Tharrats calls attention to the vulnerability of the oceans and the multiple communities dependent on their wellbeing, and she imagines material cultures and technologies based on coexistence and care.

Making of

Rosa Tharrats
Rosa Tharrats
Rosa Tharrats
Rosa Tharrats
Rosa Tharrats
Rosa Tharrats
Rosa Tharrats
Rosa Tharrats
Rosa Tharrats

Photos: Latitudes and Hiuwai Chu

About Rosa Tharrats

Rosa Tharrats

Informed by her work as a costume designer, Rosa Tharrats is interested in sensorial and spiritual communication between different ‘species’ of lively materials and bodies. Often inspired by the dramatic natural scenography around her home in Cadaqués, her artistic practice combines textiles, garments, upholstery, painting and performance. She characteristically reincorporates elements in her works as an organic expression of symbiosis and regrowth.

Les anèmones (2020) evolved from a temporary installation of adorned plaster and marble statues made in the landscape at Cap de Creus the previous year. The exhibition centred on a suspended textile collage that formed a diaphanous wall incorporating velvet, silk, discarded rags and oceanic detritus, as well as ghostly photographic images by Lluís Tudela. Svelamento di un genius loci (2017) took place at the Margherita di Savoia saltworks in Apulia, Italy. Through a series of chants and arrangements of fabrics on a salt cliff, Tharrats and poet Gabriel Ventura attempted to invoke the mineral soul of the site.

Rosa Tharrats studied at Elisava (2002–2004) and graduated from the Istituto Europeo di Design (2007), both in Barcelona. She has exhibited at the Museu de l’Empordà, Figueres (2021); Bombon Projects Summer Space, Fonteta, Girona (2020); and Galería Heinrich Ehrhardt, Madrid (2018). She has collaborated with artists Donna Huanca and Jordi Colomer, poet Gabriel Ventura and filmmaker Albert Serra. She won the Gaudí Award in 2014 and 2020. rosatharratsoliva.com

Les Anèmones, Rosa Tharrats
Les Anèmones, Rosa Tharrats
Les Anèmones, Rosa Tharrats
Svelamento di un genius loci, Rosa Tharrats
Svelamento di un genius loci, Rosa Tharrats
Svelamento di un genius loci, Rosa Tharrats

Quadern de meravelles ((Notebook of Marvels) (2020) is a dream-like, meditative journey by Rosa Tharrats in collaboration with Ariadna Ribas, Gabriel Ventura, Oma Totem, Artur Tort, 120 sheep from Mas Duran in Cap de Creus, a starfish at s’Arenella in Cadaqués, floating textiles from a sleeve of a princess dress in a river near Prades, wild carrots and stars.