FONS ÀUDIO #19
Eulàlia Grau
Since the early seventies, Eulàlia Grau has recontextualised media images, creating unexpected contrasts through which she invites us to reflect on the incongruities of our society. These practices can be linked to European critical Pop Art, or, as Bartomeu Marí has pointed out, ‘to the political photomontage of the Berlin Dadaists in the twenties (John Heartfield, George Grosz and Raoul Hausmann).’
Eulàlia Grau is also often associated with the Catalan conceptual art of the seventies, in which there was a strong presence of women. Eugènia Balcells, Esther Ferrer, Fina Miralles and Àngels Ribé are some of the artists from the same generation who share similar interests with Eulàlia. While they did not form a homogeneous group, all of them fought to overcome dominant patriarchal stereotypes and, through their feminist ideas, contributed to broadening the existing systems of representation and ways of understanding art. Eulàlia Grau does not feel comfortable being labelled ‘conceptual’ because she doesn’t see her art as being ephemeral or structured around any theory.
Eulàlia uses a straightforward language that is expressed in the form of collages, screen prints, murals, posters, books and magazine inserts, through which she seeks to connect with audiences beyond the strictly artistic sphere. As such, her work becomes a radical means of observing reality; an uncomfortable testimony of the society of her time. Issues that were already present in her works in the seventies and eighties, such as class and gender differences, the bias of justice and the media, labour exploitation, corruption, and repression, are still distressingly relevant four decades later.
Eulàlia Grau has spent long periods in Milan, Berlin, Japan and China. Her work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions. “I Have Never Painted Golden Angels” (MACBA, 2013) is the first monographic exhibition of her oeuvre.
More FONS ÀUDIO:
FONS AUDIO #20. Sandra Balsells
FONS AUDIO #18. Erick Beltrán
FONS AUDIO #17. Judith Barry
FONS AUDIO #16. Perejaume
FONS AUDIO #15. Ignasi Aballí
FONS AUDIO #14. Josep Maria Mestres Quadreny
Xavier Ribas
The photographs of Xavier Ribas analyse processes of transformation of contemporary metropolises, and the ways of life and habitability that these changes bring about.
Esther Ferrer
The oeuvre of Esther Ferrer (San Sebastián, 1937) is characterized by a methodic minimalism, in which quotidian objects and her own body become the main elements in her work.
Eulàlia Valldosera
Eulàlia Valldosera talks about the early stages of her career, about her use of light, her status as a woman, her creative processes, and about some of her works in the MACBA Collection.
Eulàlia Grau
Interview with Eulàlia Grau about art and protest, about art audiences, and about the creation processes behind some of the works that can be seen in the exhibition 'I Have Never Painted Golden Angels'.
Deleted scenes
We dig up some unreleased fragments of the interview with the Catalan photographer Sandra Balsells.
Sandra Balsells
Sandra Balsells has spent more than twenty years using her camera to document and denounce the impact that military, natural and social catastrophes have on people. She practices a humanist, combative, poetic photojournalism that lays bare the conflicts of our time, offering us images with which to construct critical discourses and organise our visual memory.
Erick Beltrán
In his work, Mexican artist Erick Beltrán reflects on the ways in which information is legitimised by manipulating and using discourses from published material.
Judith Barry
Judith Barry's installations can be considered to be an intersection of different disciplines (architecture, sculpture, film, video, performance) forged in the seventies when postmodern theories first arrived on the art scene. A substantial part of Barry's work, which is closely linked to feminism, revolves around issues of gender identity and the relationship between individuals and the urban environment.