I went to MACBA on Saturday and found myself in Tibidabo yesterday, so going somewhere today hasn’t been in any of my plans. But, as often is the case, the best things happen to us when we neither expect nor wish them. As you might have guessed already, Palau Robert has easily topped the previous two, although you don’t need to pay a cent to enter the space, not to mention an hour to reach it.

There are three exhibitions ready to greet whoever comes to see them; visiting all of them should not take longer than 1h30, even if you are of a thoughtful and perceptive kind. All the exhibitions are meant to entertain your eye and keep your mind in peace. I guess that was something I have been longing for quite a while. That’s partly why the whole space left me more than just pleased. Let me tell all in order, though.

The first expo, devoted to the oeuvre of Antoni Bernard, is purely photographic. The name of the photographer didn’t ring a bell with me, to be honest. However, as my experience at MACBA again demonstrated, the fact you know the artist’s name doesn’t mean you’ll be somehow impressed by their piece. It may give you a pleasure of recognition indeed, but it is a purely intellectual experience. The Palau Robert experiment, on the other hand, was a sheer delight for the eye.

The halls were darkly lit, what created a pleasant atmosphere of calmness and helped to concentrate on the exhibits present. The first thing you see upon entering the space is the word of curator, introducing the space; the combination of friendly and yet still formal tones of voices seemed to be nicely balanced. The non-chronological framework chosen to unfold the story of Bernad’s mainly portrait work felt like the right choice as well. I have to admit looking at pictures taken at various periods of time by various people (if you assume that some 20 years make a considerable difference to your personality) was rather (un)usual but pleasingly good.

Notwithstanding the fact that both men and women were in Bernad’s professional focus, the latter immediately and with no doubt became the main characters of his work for me. Beautiful, charming, dangerous, innocent, laughing, seducing, childish, serious, feminine, mysterious as they are, his female portraits made it really difficult for me to take my eyes off them. Walking along the rows of pictures,
I suddenly felt the desire to photograph more people myself. It always happens when you see the work of someone very talented and close to your own heart and mind, perhaps. Thus, at different periods of my life, I wanted to write, create sculptures, paint, compose music, and take pictures. Easily influenced by beauty, am I not?

Surprisingly, the second exhibition managed to keep up. This time the spotlight has been turned on the Spanish (or should I say Catalan?) illustrator, Carme Solé Vendrell; the show bears a sounding name “Per què?” (“Why?” or “What for?”) What is worth noting is that the exposition doesn’t showcase the works gathered. Instead, it tells a story of the illustrator with the help of hers, giving some useful general insights on how to create illustrations along the way.

Carme’s first-person narratives foster the sensation of her presence in the gallery and make you feel closer to her. The books she created are there to touch, smell, see and read (of course, if you are capable of doing so in Catalan).

One thing that still puzzles me a bit, though, is the name and the last halls of the expo. The first refers to the last, actually. That is, the visual narrative culminates with two halls on war portrayal, which therefore bear a very dark feeling and leave quite the same impression on the otherwise very light and bright exhibition. Of course, it makes chronological sense if this is her latest work, but still (I honestly don’t know how to finish this sentence but want to record this air of uncertainty and desire to finish something sunny with something shiny).

The third show was on political photography, namely on the French revolts of the year 1968. As different from its two companions, this expo is very laconical and has nothing but pictures and a film, all of them being placed in one hall. As such, it can be gone through in 10 minutes, unless you really like looking at the suffering people’s pictures (I hope you don’t), which expectedly forms a significant part of the collection present there.