I Speak, Knowing It’s Not about Speaking

Do we perhaps depend too much on one type of language, on one same system for representation and communication that is predominantly narrative? That is the question that the curator and art critic Juan Canela takes as the starting-point for the exhibition I Speak, Knowing It’s Not about Speaking.

The project revolves around a series of works from both the ”la Caixa” Contemporary Art Collection and the MACBA Collection that reflect on the very nature of language or embody – through meaningful, original language – a unique universe constructed from personal, historic, cultural, linguistic and social codes.

I Speak, Knowing It’s Not about Speaking is the first of three exhibitions that will be presented at CaixaForum Barcelona this season as a result of the second edition of Comisart, a programme launched by ”la Caixa” to provide opportunities for professionalising the curatorial sector and to encourage new readings of its contemporary art collection.

This second edition offers curators the chance to use works from the MACBA Collection in their projects and to invite young artists to take part. Accordingly, in his project, Juan Canela selected works by seventeen artists, six of them from the ”la Caixa” Collection, six more from the MACBA Collection and five pieces loaned by the artists themselves. The seventeen artists are Joseph Beuys, Pep Vidal, Isidoro Valcárcel Medina, Jonathan Monk, Juan López, Falke Pisano, Ryan Gander, Matt Mullican, Asier Mendizabal, Eduardo Chillida, Susana Solano, Félix González-Torres, Dora García, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Julia Spínola, Aimar Pérez Galí and Marc Vives.

I Speak, Knowing It’s Not about Speaking. Comisart. New Perspectives on the ”la Caixa” Collection. Dates: from 30 October 2015 to 7 February 2016. Venue: CaixaForum, Barcelona (Av. de Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia, 6-8).