BARCELONA.- “The young architects wanted to organise a confrontational exhibition, an attack on the official retrospective that had been held earlier: the museums’ painter. I hadn’t attended the official opening. I was in Barcelona, but at the last moment I said I wouldn’t make it, in order to avoid running into the authorities. I was there for the young architects, however; at three in the morning –so there wouldn't be people around, because it wasn't a performance–, I was on the pavement painting. Then we went for a coffee and a croissant to warm up a little. What I was interested in was the immediate gesture, on a background prepared in advance with messages in Catalan in favour of the freedom of Catalonia.”
That is how Joan Miró described to Georges Raillard (Georges Raillard. Miró. Ceci est la couleur de mes rêves. Paris, 1977) his intervention on the windows of the ground floor of the Association of Architects of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands headquarters in Barcelona in 1969. The action arose from the invitation of architecture firm Studio PER, to participate in the exhibition Miró otro, organised by the COAC and designed by them. Miró otro, which championed the more transgressive aspects of Miró's work, ended up becoming a counter exhibition to the major retrospective on the artist that had been opened at the Antic Hospital de la Santa Creu at the end of 1968.
The action was an ephemeral, collective work, produced by Miró in collaboration with the young architects of Studio PER between 26 and 28 April 1969, and destroyed on 30 June that same year, when the show closed. At Miró’s suggestion, the architects prepared the windows by painting a background using the colours yellow, red, blue, and green, with messages in Catalan in favour of Catalonia’s freedom. Miró then completed the mural using black paint over the whole thing.
The resulting work was 44 meters long, with a painted surface area of around 70 meters square. Miró erased the mural at 12 midday on 30 June 1969 using a broom and solvent. Both the execution and the erasure of the mural were documented by filmmaker Pere Portabella and photographer Colita, and closely followed by the press of the time.
Miró gave the Studio PER architects who had participated in the action the signed, dedicated sketch of the mural. This year, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Fundació Joan Miró, they have formalised the donation of this drawing. The sketch was displayed at the Fundació as part of the exhibitions Joan Miró. 1956-1983. Feeling, emotion, gesture (2006-2007) and Joan Miró. The Ladder of Escape (2011-2012).
