JOAN MIRÓ – Mallorca 2023

We have completed the main part of the Joan Miró project – a week spent on the island of Mallorca. Joan Miró lived in Mallorca for the last 25 years of his life. In the island’s capital, Palma de Mallorca, his Foundation is located, where you can visit his studio and exhibition spaces hosting specialized exhibitions.

I managed to arrange an individual visit to the Foundation, so Alejandro de Ysasi Alonso spent 3 hours with us, showing us through all the buildings, corners, and collections available, while also sharing many interesting details about the great Spanish painter’s life. Another bonus was that, thanks to our accommodation at Hotel Miró right next to the Foundation, we had free additional entry to the Foundation, which most of us fully utilized to get detailed familiarity with JM’s work.

The week-long program in Mallorca was divided into two parts – 3 days touring and getting acquainted with the most prominent areas of the island that are somehow connected either directly with Joan Miró or with elements of his work, and the remaining 3 days as free time where everyone could return to selected places or simply enjoy beautiful time on the island.

We started with a visit to the monastery in Randa, which houses (besides beautiful views of the island landscape) a collection of historical agricultural machinery – JM was very closely connected throughout his life with farmers and his family farm in Mont Roig. We ended the first day at the famous Es Trenc beach, which is one of the few preserved in its original non-tourist form and perhaps better allows one to imagine what impressions affected Miró during his walks along the coast. The next day, right after a lecture at the Foundation, we visited La Seu Cathedral in Palma with amazingly reconstructed chapels by Antoni Gaudí and Miguel Barceló. Joan Miró greatly admired Gaudí, similar to Picasso, and often visited the cathedral during noon hours to listen to organ music.

We dedicated one day to Mallorcan nature – we went to the dramatic landscape of the Formentor peninsula and, since Miró often referenced prehistoric paintings, we also visited the talaiotic archaeological site near the town of Artá. The third program day was devoted to historic towns on the western coast of the island – we started in Valldemossa, visited Miró and Picasso exhibition halls in Sóller, and ended the day in Fornalutx and Deià.

Each of us 11 photographers and artists gathered sufficient background information, photographs, and experiences from Miró-related places to work on the project output during the remainder of 2023. We now face the finalization period as you know it – the main point will certainly be another joint e-book; and we’ll see if we manage to organize a joint exhibition again. If everything works out, we would like to present it in spring 2024.

I thank Patrik Manina, Jiřina Nebesářová (Jina Nebe), and Mirka Trusková for the photographs and videos I used for this report and the video loop in the attachment.

In Liberec, June 5, 2023