Paper Tears is an installation of light, sound, image and choreography with a central element: an archive of watermarks or watermarks—drawings visible only against the light on a paper—currently preserved in the Capellades Paper Mill Museum. Based on a selection of fifteenth-century watermarks, Claudia Pagès Rabal it opens a dialogue between past and present and evokes a time of historical transition, when Mediterranean trade declines and Atlantic routes expand, initiating European modernity and extractive colonial systems. In this context, territories such as Venice and Catalonia played a significant role in a transformation that still shapes our reality today.
The presence of Catalan culture at the Venice Art Biennale contributes to strengthening its international projection and making it visible in one of the artistic spaces of reference on a global scale. In this sense, the Minister of Culture, Sònia Hernández, has reaffirmed “the commitment of the Government of the Generalitat to Catalan creation, its internationalization, support to artists and culture as a space for dialogue and transformation and engine of critical thinking, essential to face the challenges of the present and the future”.
Hernández has affirmed that the proposal of Claudia Pagès, Paper Tears“connects heritage, memory and critical reflection on systems of knowledge and power”. “It is an exhibition deeply linked to the industrial history of Catalonia through paper and water, an element that here, in Venice, acquires a special symbolism”he added.
Finally, the Minister of Culture highlighted the work of the Ramon Llull Institute, “which makes the presence of Catalonia in Venice possible and which, in a transversal way, promotes production spaces, artistic residencies and circuits for the international diffusion of Catalan culture”.
For her part, the director of the Ramon Llull Institute, Anna Guitart, has emphasized the construction of the narrative of artistic excellence that the continued presence at the Biennale entails: “Catalonia in Venice year after year contributes to consolidating a narrative specific to contemporary Catalan and Balearic artistic creation, which brings reflection and dialogue to the international cultural ecosystem”.
In addition, he emphasized that “for the Ramon Llull Institute, to support projects such as Paper Tears by Claudia Pagès Rabal demonstrates our commitment to the international dissemination of Catalan and Balearic artists and their works, without losing the link with our own context and understanding culture as a space of complexity. We will continue working to position our creators in relevant international contexts“.
Paper Tears it unfolds through multiple points of view, oscillating between the collective narrative and the singular experience. Four lasers project onto the walls of the space an evolving archive of 15th century watermarks and hand-made animations by Claudia Pagès Rabal. Elise Lammer, curator of the exhibition, emphasized that “watermarks are almost invisible, and that’s precisely the point. They remind us that power rarely operates on the surface. It is built into systems that run silently, and only becomes visible under certain conditions. In this sense, tracing its material origins and production processes, which are deeply intertwined with water, Pagès Rabal reveals how these structures are both physical and symbolic, and how they continue to shape the present“.
At the center of the installation is a 10-metre screen, with LED panels on which a video filmed in various places in Catalonia is projected, defined by the presence and movement of water, which include a variety of environments ranging from fountains to riverbanks and various infrastructures. Also in this video you can see several characters who, based on a drama created by the Catalan artist, address events that happened during the years in which the watermarks were made and which, as he explained, “they lead us to talk about the now and to generate monologues about euphemisms in language, about boycotts, about universal visions and individual quantums and about the impact that all this has and how it is reflected in our bodies“.
The Catalan participation in the Venice Biennale highlights the commitment of the Department of Culture to the promotion of contemporary artistic creation and its international projection. In this sense, Claudia Pagès Rabal’s proposal also exemplifies the will to strengthen digital culture, integrating scenic, visual and technological languages.
The Ramon Llull Institute organizes and produces Catalonia in Venice, the participation of Catalan culture in the Collateral Event of La Biennale di Venezia. He has been present at the Art Biennale since 2009 and the Architecture Biennale since 2012.
This year, it should also be noted that the Spanish pavilion presents The resta Catalan project Oriol Vilanovaartist, i Carlos Guerra, commissioner
