THE GUIDE

THE MAGAZINE

[ the magazine ]

LOOK INTO THE ART AND CULTURE OF EMPORDÀ THROUGH ITS CHARACTERS

Bernat Daviu

"WORKING WITH PEOPLE HAS MADE ME A BETTER ARTIST"

By Gisela Chillida Photo Andrea Ferrés

Bernat Daviu is an artist and gallery owner. His artistic practice is focused on creating images with discordant levels of meaning that often address the topic of combining life and art. Painting is present in most of his projects, along with videos, costume design, food, and performance, which enables him to generate dynamic social situations in physical and collective spaces. 

b1n0

"EN EL EMPORDÀ SE ESTÁ CREANDO UNA COMUNIÓN DE ARTISTAS INCREÍBLE"

By Agus Izquierdo Photo Lluís Tudela

Emili Bosch y Malcus Codolà son b1n0, un tándem electrónico arraigado en la Bisbal que ha conseguido hacerse un sitio, con plena legitimidad, en la escena catalana. Entre la periferia y la música bailable, este proyecto nacido en plena pandemia ha conseguido trabajar en poco tiempo con artistas de la talla de Núria Graham, Tarta Relena, Fernando Palau, El Pequeño de Cal Eril o Pau Vehí (PHOAC). Exploradores impávidos de terrenos inhóspitos, b1n0 son más navegantes que músicos; más descubridores que productores. Ahora, después de bi (Foehn Records, 2021), trabajan en un nuevo EP que utilizará una voz creada con inteligencia artificial. Hemos conversado con la mitad de la formación.

Víctor Dolz

GAZES INTO THE ABYSS

By Eudald Camps Photo Lluís Català

Víctor Dolz (Begur, 1945) is something of a secret artist. He is indifferent to the comedy that the art world never tires of representing. He paints in a regular and methodical manner somewhat on the sidelines in his studios in Begur and Palafrugell. He works without haste, conscious of doing just what he needs to do. Dolz carefully manages his words just like his artwork, where everything tends to become essential, but is generous when observers approach his works along with the bareness they expect.

Tew Bunnag

"EVERYTHING IS PART OF AN EXCHANGE"

By Azucena Moya Photo Paula da Lua

In the heart of the Baix Empordà I met with Tew Bunnag, a grief accompaniment professional, writer, and Tai chi teacher. Tew moved to the Empordà for love. He confesses that he didn’t want to uproot his life in Greece at first, but that the charming and abundant landscape of the Empordà region captivated him. Tew was born in Thailand and speaks eight languages. He explains that he has learned that everything is part of an exchange through his experiences in grief accompaniment, his university education in Economics at Cambridge, and from practicing Tai chi. 

Núria Graham

"I'M GETTING TO KNOW MYSELF BETTER ALL THE TIME"

By Agus Izquierdo Photo Ingride Ferrer

We’re chatting with the singer, songwriter, and guitarist about life in La Bisbal d’Empordà, her global tours, and her new album Cyclamen.

Lo Relacional

REMOVING CONSCIOUSNESS

By Ignasi Rifé Photo Javier Almar

Back and forth between the Baix Empordà and Barcelona, Patricia and Desiré stir up consciences through Lo Relacional, a collective driver of relationships and practices between education, cultural creation, and community dynamics. From a feminist, intercultural, queer, and intersectional perspective (intersectionality is the study of overlapping or intersecting social identities and their respective systems of oppression, domination, or discrimination), they activate individual, social, and community transformation processes that explore new forms of more shared, equitable, sustainable, and diverse living. Their strength is generating relationships between people, contexts, disciplines, and ways of doing and being. They don’t have a single way of working, employing a hybrid operation that adapts to the needs and possibilities of each project, always focusing on the relationships that arise through their dynamics.

Pilar Farrés

A WEAVER OF GAZES

By Eudald Camps Photo Paula da Lua

It is challenging to encapsulate a creator like Pilar Farrés, both due to her works, meticulously crafted thanks to her unique poetic sensitivity, and the multitude of registers that she adopts in her artistic practice, especially when she delves into the territory of curating or when she goes behind the scenes to give voice to those who often do not have one. In the world of art, in which egos grow ceaselessly, Pilar Farrés seems to have embarked upon a path in the opposite direction: projects such as Empordoneses, Trenta mirades d’un espai indiscret, Memòries, and Nit share their plural nature or, more precisely, a vindication of the creative community. Farrés defines herself in few words: “A multidisciplinary artist from the Empordà.” 

 

Tamari-e

KITAMURA'S JOURNEY

By Eudald Camps Photo Andrea Ferrés

Nearly four decades ago, Hiroshi Kitamura (Hokkaido, 1955) left his world behind to become familiar with the western  viewpoint. The painting styles of the great masters, such as Goya, Picasso, and Miró, as well as Gaudí’s architecture, ended up bringing him to a Mediterranean universe that he continues to explore from the countryside around Camallera. The synthesis of these worlds, on the face of it, couldn’t be stranger: Kitamura’s Tamari-e, based on the natural flow of pictorial elements, has little to do with the Iberian tradition, often conditioned by the drama of its own history. Yet, we should insist that the contradictions are merely apparent.

Dolça Abella

A JOURNEY TO FIND THE BEST FLOWERS

By Cristina Gaggioli Photo Andrea Ferrés

It's the darkest hour of the night. The silence out in the middle of the Cap de Creus is only broken by the waves in the background that continue crashing against the coastal rocks. Along the trail, an approaching engine is heard. It's the sound of Laura and Sergi's jeep carrying a trailer loaded with thirty boxes of bees and embarking upon a very special journey. 

Manolo Ballesteros

GEOMETRY AND FINENESS

By Eudald Camps Photo Javier Almar

Manolo Ballesteros (Barcelona, 1965) looks more towards the outdoors than to home. Perhaps this is why he ended up choosing the Empordà to live and work: it is a place that offers incomparable peace of mind. Somewhat beyond the alienating dynamics of the city, his family home in Vilatenim is the setting where his paintings occupy the space, slowly but without pause. He paints the space and sculpts what is visible: his recent works show us an expanded craft that, deep down, is synonymous with maturity.