Mapa de textures

Whether tactile or visual, the texture of matter is the physical quality of the surface of objects. This aspect, which can be rough or smooth, coarse or soft, partly defines our world. Texture also alludes to the act of weaving. It is synonymous with warp and weft, thus evoking a specific arrangement of elements, threads or strands, that will form a fabric. Furthermore, texture refers to the quality of linguistic cohesion contained in a written text.

The works of Alberto Baraya, Adrián Martínez, Vítor Mejuto, Rosell Meseguer, and Isabel Servera are part of this exhibition and form a unique map of textures that unfolds within the domestic space of a traditional Ibizan house, now the Sa Punta des Molí exhibition center in Sant Antoni de Portmany, where Walter Benjamin lived during his time in Ibiza in the early 1930s. All the works are linked by an invisible thread that connects the themes and discourses addressed by the Biennal B* program, an initiative promoted by Es Baluard Museu d’Art Contemporani de Palma and the Consell de Mallorca.

A distinctive and abstract Pangea, like a tapestry, welcomes visitors as soon as they cross the threshold of the former house, now an exhibition center. This is Rosell Meseguer’s Mallorcan Geology a large-format study on canvas, based on research into the metallic and non-metallic mineral resources of Mallorca, translated into painting and inspired by Quadra minerale: tierras raras, otros minerales y conceptos de minería; un acercamiento a los elementos y sus usos en la contemporaneidad that he carried out between 2017 and 2021. Meseguer’s work unites scientific knowledge and art. Her chromatic textures can be seen horizontally and from top to bottom: marès, black quartz, malachite, azurite and chalcopitote that correspond to ochres, greens and blues, unconsciously evoking the matter found in an imagined mineral sea, in the countryside, in the earth.

It is precisely from the land that the palm fronds are extracted, which, when treated, give rise to the plait, the braided esparto strips traditionally used to make baskets and other household objects, both in Ibiza and Mallorca. In the Artà area, where Isabel Servera’s family is from, the creation of textures by hand is often done in groups, talking or singing, sometimes alone and in silence. The repetition of gestures becomes prayer, mantra, breath. A rhythm that the artist transforms into a series of pieces called Alenades (breaths), to which another distinct rhythm is added: that of machine sewing. The piece we see here is organic; it seems as if it might disintegrate. It rests in a niche, without adhering to any pattern. It is perhaps the material translation of that act which, by inhaling and exhaling, transforms the exterior into the interior and vice versa. In the artist’s words, it evokes both the physical effort of the process and the vitality of the material.

In close connection with the sculpture Alenades, we find a series of works made of braided paper in the style of the llatra or llata, which evoke old samples of how to work with palm leaves, while simultaneously presenting us with antagonistic struggles inherent in the human experience: order versus chaos, the natural versus the artificial, the made versus the found, the finished and the unfinished, in an eternal, unresolved chain. The texture contains the text, now indecipherable, as its form changes by recycling the paper as raw material.

The subtlety of the material in Isabel Servera’s work becomes powerful in that of Adrián Martínez. His drawings leap from the usual formats of his work on paper or canvas, emerging reinforced by a support that enhances them: a felt with an irregular and rough texture. This is the result of a collaboration with the circular factory Llanatura, which transforms and recycles sheep’s wool that would otherwise be discarded. The materials evoke the perceptible, the tactile, and the connection to the earth. The artist’s two drawings, now on metal structures, with front and back, become windows into the difficult, solitary, and often precarious life of the creator, imbued with subtle irony and a touch of fresh humor.

Explicitly connected to the site and specifically conceived for this exhibition are the works of Vítor Mejuto. They translate, in geometrically shaped paintings with a smooth texture, three significant elements of tradition and craftsmanship, focusing on the typical clothing of Ibiza and Formentera: the barretina (a traditional Catalan cap), castanets, and handmade esparto grass sandals. His work intelligently manages to express the cultural identity of a territory with a minimal number of elements. One of his paintings can also be seen in the trull, the adjacent building.

The olive press (trull) is in a completely renovated building, which still retains the old press to make oil. This architectural volume faces the mill that gives the complex its name (Sa Punta des Molí) but also the sea. It is precisely on the coast of Mallorca where Alberto Baraya carries out a performance piece documented in the video of his project “Llatina i Mestral” within Biennal B, in which the artist paints on-site on a sailing sail during the voyage. The sail is transformed into a canvas on which to paint while also serving as a support for a double journey—physical on the sea and iconographic or conceptual—that turns the island into a stage. Baraya traveled on a historic llaüt, a traditional boat that Mejuto synthesizes in three colors in the painting that brings this unique map of textures to a close, uniting practices and knowledge to connect different places on each of the islands.

*Biennal B is a cross-cutting program of activities that was created with the aim of integrating contemporary artistic practices with crafts, science and design, through exhibitions, site-specific interventions and performative actions, to foster collaboration between artists and craft professionals committed to sustainable development, trades, traditions and the landscape of the Balearic Islands.