I’m mexican, brunette, starch 1.57 m. Peso 52 kilos and I call Marta Palau. NaCí in Lérida, Catalonia, Spain. He read México in Los 6 years. “
In spite of Palau, he was and wanted to be Latin American, which is demonstrated through his art, where he refers to a popular and spiritual culture that has to do with the Nauallis and other ancestral figures in Mexico, and where he uses materials such as the jute or corn, typical of the land of his country. However, the artist spoke Catalan, a language he passed on to his daughter, and was in contact with great creators of the land of his parents, such as Antoni Tàpies, Aurèlia Muñoz and so many others with whom they influenced each other, and among which Josep Grau-Garriga stands out and the impact he had on the tapestries of Palau.
In an article by the historian José Maria Murià, the Mexican, also the son of exiles, explains that when there was the great exodus, the attitude of the Catalans could be divided, especially into two groups: those who never adapted, “ who were considered themselves purest, who lived quite a bit, and even despised Mexican and the Mexicans and sought to relate as little as possible ”; And the second group, “which has adapted quite well to the living conditions of the High Valley of Anàhuac”, that is, that he chose to love and take his land and the culture of the place where they had moved to reside. Within these, some offered “quite watery Catalan” and others did not lose “the consciousness of their origin”, despite being fully Mexican. Oops, the same thing today in Catalonia: there are those who see the culture and the Catalan language as a nuisance, and there are those who value the country where they have lived.
Despite the trauma of exile, this artist was and wanted to be Latin American, which is proven through his art
Palau was from this last group. He created his work from this feeling of belonging and even grateful to the government that opened the doors to refugees (especially the Governor Lázaro Cárdenas). Imma Prieto, director of the 1st sample curator My roads are terrestrialhe explains that “the condition of migrant is imprinted in Palau’s work in a double sense: on the one hand, in the wake of his experience as Spanish exile; on the other, due to the place of residence in Tijuana, the city of Baixa California that acts as a border between Mexico and the United States.” I would still add a third sense to the condition of Palau’s migrant: the Catalan exile, which is not the same as the generic “Spanish”.
This is also explained by Murià, for example, in the fact that when Catalan speakers in Mexico asked the rest of the Republicans to train their children also in Catalan, the answer was negative: “Catalan activities never had the support of other Republicans. […] The argument against catalanity was always the same: calling them to favor Franco in removing cohesion and strength in exile with the divisionism. But if the Catalans were Spanish, why did they never support their particular manifestations? Also in exile it becomes patent that the Catalans had an obligation to stop being to be good Spaniards […] They had to live, in fact, in a double exile. “
Marta Palau’s work refers to the migrant fact, the exiles and ups and downs of humanity. It exemplifies it with the duality of history and the magic, of the body and earth that live evil, wars and exile, but also give life, food, sense and hope. It is not strange, then, that the first piece we see in Tàpies is Waterfall (1978), a great sperm rain that starts from the idea of the logos spermatikos They coined the Greek philosophers to designate the generative principle of the universe, which creates everything, but also snatches everything.
Catalans, like everyone else, have to recognize our history to know how to position ourselves well, with humility and at the same time with cultural awareness, in the face of discussions on immigration. , and in general, the Mexicans of Catalan origin can help us. As generations go by and most of those immigrants are no longer there, it is grateful that Tàpies allows us to come in contact with the Palau experience through his art. An art that shows that, far from falling into the false debate that makes us choose between people and land, we can love everything. The key is the respect for the cultures of the territories.
‘Marta Palau. My roads are terrestrial. ‘ Tàpies Museum. Until August 17
