Secrets de fabricació

Secrets de fabricació, the third exhibition in the Digues, cosa. Joan Brossa i els poemes objecte cycle, explores the construction of the object from both its material and conceptual aspects.

In this specific case, production and ideation define territories that cannot be easily separated. On the one hand, the exhibition incorporates sketches and documents that offer an intimate look into the genesis of Brossa's object-poem.

At the same time, it includes works by artists in whom the production of the object gives it meaning and guides its interpretation.

In the copy of the magazine Algol that formed part of Joan Brossa's personal library, the title of the poems he published there in 1947 appears modified. Although he originally titled them "Tres poemes purs", in his copy the word purs is crossed out in pencil.

In the introductory paragraph of this publication, Brossa points out that, as far as writing poetry is concerned, complex formulas must be avoided: "If you like, the secret consists only in knowing how to look".

Thus, Brossa places himself closer to the observer than to the author and, at the same time, makes it clear that the poet is not necessarily the one who uses the most sophisticated tricks, nor the one who writes by strokes of pure inspiration, but the one who knows how to pay attention and discern: the act of looking is equivalent to constructing.

The works that make up the exhibition make use of very restricted procedures that endow the object with a poetic function. For example, through instructions or protocols, denying its everyday uses or shifting its authorship.

The works manifest an inseparable relationship between ideation and production; and the words, in their titles or in the description of the materials with which these works have been made, underline an opposition between fabrication understood as a game of concealments or a secret, and fabrication understood as a poetic mechanism.

Marc Navarro is a curator and writer.