Seminar I, You, World: Symbol and Universe

Following on from the success of the first edition of the I, You, World: Symbol and Universe study days, held last year as part of the programme marking the centenary of the artist’s birth, the Museu Tàpies now presents the second and final edition of these study days. The aim is to delve into one of the most complex and essential aspects of Antoni Tàpies’ work: his ability to create a symbolic language that transcends material form and enters a realm that is both deeply personal and universally resonant.

By bringing together art theorists, poets and image specialists, those sessions spurred the development of fresh insights and multivoiced readings of Tàpies’ Sèrie Teresa [Teresa’s Series] (1966) and Cartes per a la Teresa [Letters to Teresa] (1974), two key works for understanding the dialogue between art, writing and existence in his career.

Tàpies’ oeuvre can be seen as a living essay that shapes a symbolic universe in which poetic vision and material form are in constant interplay. The focus on his Cartes per a la Teresa portfolio and Sèrie Teresa series brought to light the dialectic between sign and gesture, word and space, and the intersection of private life with the public construction of an artwork. This body of images and texts embodies an idea of art not merely limited to representation, but as an open process of exploration and symbolic creation, where each work becomes both meditation and communication extending beyond the artist himself.

The exhibition Antoni Tàpies: The Imagination of the World, currently on view at the Museu Tàpies, presents a selection of twelve works from Cartes per a la Teresa. Building on research shared in these study days, the show offers visitors a rare opportunity to explore the intersection of love letters, collage and lithography, expressed through a language that fuses cosmic gestures with the intimacy of the everyday. This ensemble reflects Tàpies’ gift for decoding and reconstructing shared life experiences, transforming them into spaces rich in meaning and open to multiple interpretations.

In this spirit, the I, You, World: Symbol and Universe study days reaffirm the Museu Tàpies’ commitment to placing the artist’s work within an interdisciplinary framework that allows it to be understood as a meeting point of personal history, symbolic vision, politics and aesthetic reflection. This broader perspective reveals how Tàpies’ art transcends its historical and cultural origins to become a universal expression in which the relationship between sign and world expands into the creation of a new universe.

PROGRAMME

SESSION 1

Date: 30 September 2025

6 pm. Welcome and introduction by Imma Prieto

6.10 pm. Talk: “An Education by Stone”, by Pedro G. Romero

6.50 pm. Talk: “Visual Letters: Overflowing Language, Matter, Affection and Gesture”, by Andrea Soto Calderón

7.30 pm. Poetry reading: “Uneasy Peace”, by Blanca Llum Vidal

8 pm. Open floor for questions

8.30 pm. Closing remarks

SESSION 2

Date: 1 October 2025

6 pm. Introduction by Judith Barnés

6.10 pm. Talk by Marie José Mondzain

6.50 pm. Talk: “Essays on Love Without History”, by Raül Garrigasait

7.30 pm. Poetry reading: “Rag Days: Sequentiality, Epistolarity, Abstraction, Tàpies and Millares”, by Eloy Fernández Porta

8 pm. Open floor for questions 

8.30 pm. Closing remarks