The botanical writing of Mercè Rodoreda puts down roots at the CCCB
An exhibition inspired by an author of radical character brings together contemporary artists from different disciplines.
Across the Atlantic, Barcelona is presenting Catalan and Barcelona literature at the Guadalajara International Book Fair (Mexico) these days with a phrase by Mercè Rodoreda (“Flowers will come”) as its motto. And in Barcelona, the Centre de Cultura Contemporània is dedicating an exhibition to the author, from December 5 to May 25, that highlights the radical nature of her literature.
The exhibition, titled “Rodoreda, a Forest”, has been curated by a true specialist in Rodoreda’s work: essayist, university professor, and literary critic Neus Penalba. With a long trajectory in various international universities, she will show us the radical character of Rodoreda’s work.
She will do so by showing us some of the themes and motifs that recur in her works and that, as the exhibition’s organizers explain, form an underground network that, like roots, connects them to one another.
The image of roots is no coincidence, since Mercè Rodoreda’s work is closely linked to botany. Flowers and plants have a central role in her creations; it is no surprise that a vertical botanical garden has been dedicated to her at the Institut d’Estudis Catalans, where various flowers are grown and where they explain in which book or poem by the author they appear.
In the CCCB exhibition, which includes original documentation from the Mercè Rodoreda Foundation, they will speak to you about the author’s literary roots, and also her vital ones: the uprooting she suffered during the Civil War and the branches she came into contact with through writers, painters, and filmmakers of her time.
The person, the gestures that obsessed her (spying, watching, seeing death, choking, drowning, transforming herself...) and the themes she addressed in her works are the protagonists of the exhibition, which also connects Rodoreda’s literary work with that of artists from different periods, including contemporary names ranging from cabosanroque to Mar Arza and from Oriol Vilapuig to Carlota Subirós.
If you want to take a walk through the author’s vital and literary gardens, come see “Rodoreda, a Forest” at CCCB, but first check all the information about the visit on the website.