Miralda claimed the art as a bridge of dialogue with the political conflict: “should be more present and alert to what is happening,”
Married to the Statue of Liberty with the Columbus monument to la Rambla of Barcelona, rode a paella with sangria-like performance in the New York of 1971 and opened one of the best restaurants in cools Tribeca, The International, by which they engaged Jane Fonda, Claudia Cardinale or Liz Taylor. Antoni Miralda is not a conventional artist, for example, in his major retrospective at Macba served a cocktail blue the public to the rhythm of the caribbean and psychedelic Voodoo Dreams Les Baxter, as it was 30 years before in The International. Miralda makes the life and art of a fun, even from the most conservative sectors -both political and artistic – are not always understood. “Art has always lacked humor”, reinvindica the artist, the heir of that spirit warholiano thug and a transgressor.
“Not only am I interested in the slope of playful art, I want to get people to live together and share access to certain representations of the human expression:to laugh, to react to a critical, living the work,” says Miralda. Its 76 years, the brightness of madness creative has not disappeared in those blue eyes always alert, tellers, looking for new projects. And today the Ministry of Culture and Sport, has been distinguished with the Prize Velázquez of Plastic Arts, which is endowed with 100,000 euros, for his “originality” and a long history that dates back to the 60s, when he began to create his first works, the montages Soldats Soldés, a accumulation of soldiers of plastic that was a plea for anti-war film in the middle of the War in Vietnam. Because after the apparent divertimentos always underlies a critical, more or less veiled, more or less ironic, as in the Honey Moon Project of Columbus, and the Statue of Liberty, one of his performances most famous. “A wedding is something very nice that excites people, but if the couple represents symbols of opposites, as the icon of the conquest and of freedom, it a mess! What will happen here?” points Miralda laughing. And today, with the mess that political is mounted, could it be married to Columbus with the Cibeles? Or do you join the Holy Family with The Almudena? “Madrid – Barcelona… [sighs] The art should be more present and alert to the political situation and everything that is going on. Because the art can establish bridges of dialogue,” says Miralda, who promises to think of any performance of twinning, when you go to collect the Prize Velázquez.
The artist, who lives between Miami and Barcelona (“now I’m a little more situated here, but I go and I come”), always liked the twin cities. I already did it with Barcelona and Shanghai in the biennial art exhibition of the asian country in 2012, but in a far from obvious:through the stomach. “With the food not jokes. It is something that facilitates that link, that direct connection with the viewer,” says Miralda, who from the beginning adopted the cuisine as an artistic tool more. Literally, the public ate their works, and built altars of the aesthetics of mexican-kitsch, as in the Holy Meal. Miralda is a type with whom one would go for drinks.And that is the feeling that emanate from his art, an invitation to experiment, to taste, to touch (ignoring the labels of the museums).
“It’s about the possibility of doing anything, of playing… I’ve Never wanted to mark lines”, says the artist, less interested in the labels catalog. If a sculptor, video artist, performer, artist, transmedia, blah blah blah. Basically, Miralda does what he wants, without caring too much support. “Sometimes, perhaps I have not made the effort of explaining my work. But this kind of awards help to understand the things in a way more real,” he admits.
so soon is going back to New York, where he participated in an homage to Christo and his late partner Jeanne-Claude. Yel 14 November opens an exhibition in barcelona’s Senda Gallery in the framework of the festival of video art Loop: “Are projects about public space and participation. There are collages, videos, drawings…”. And more things in the portfolio. In a moment, Miralda is manages a happening, though not all are vox populi:in February of 2017 organized a dinner to which only you were invited twins, a recreation of the night Face to Face that took place in The International 14 February 1986. Greeted the guests dress which a priest of his own religion, with a tunic of leopard, together with his wife Montse Guillén, his other half. Since he says so, that art you have to put humor.
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