Look at the simplest object. Take, for example, an old chair. It does not
seem much. But think about the whole universe that it embraces: the
hands and the sweat carving the wood that was once a robust tree, full
of energy, in the middle of a thick forest high up in the mountains, the
loving work that made it, the eagerness that bought it, the weariness it
comforted, the pains and the joys that it supported in great living rooms
or in poor working-class suburbs. Everything takes part in life and has
importance! Even the oldest chair carries in it the original strength of
the sap that rose from the earth far away in the forest, and that will
serve to heat the day when, shattered to pieces, it will burn in a fireplace.
I invite you to play, to look attentively . . . I invite you to think.
Antoni Tàpies, ‘El joc de saber mirar’, Cavall Fort, Barcelona, nº 82 (January 1967).
The Chairs of Tàpies is a series of sound actions of a multidisciplinary nature that has formed part of the regular programme of the Museu Tàpies since 2024, on the occasion of the commemoration of Tàpies’ centenary year.
With an annual programme that places the voice and the word centre stage as a sound accompaniment to oral memory, the various artists invited set out from the chair as an element of performance, reconnecting with the Tàpies universe through today’s expressive languages and stagings. Musicians, dancers, performers, poets and so on take part in each edition to bring together, symbolically and metaphorically, two spaces in Barcelona affected by the artist: a museum of modern and contemporary art housed in what was once a publishing house, and a secular chapel on a university site.
In curating terms, each edition bears a subtitle that allows a deeper exploration of Tàpies’ legacy by tracing recurring themes and texts that reflect on Antoni Tàpies’ work, while simultaneously giving a new dimension to the artist’s voice.
Each year’s edition is programmed and curated within the Museu Tàpies, led by Imma Prieto, director of the museum, and Judith Barnés, head of public programmes at the institution.
Editions:
2024: Centenary Special
2025: Tattooed Memories
