Life is not a walk through an open field Arte

On Sunday, September 18th, the artist Phillip Maisel lead a walk from Montjuïc to the exhibition Parabolic Structures in Chiquita Room. As part of the parallel program to the exhibition, the route included different stops, passing by sound mirrors in Joan Brossa gardens, the location of the former Jewish cemetery, and the Mercat de Sant Antoni, among others, where Phillip Maisel shared his working processes in relation to those places and readings that resonated with the themes addressed in Parabolic Structures.

Among the texts read were excerpts from authors Rebecca Solnit, Michelle Zauner, Mahmoud Darwish, John Berger, and André Aciman. One of these excerpts began with the Russian proverb “life is not a path through an open field”. John Berger writes in the chapter that opens this quote, which Phillip Maisel read during the tour:

«Into the silence, which was also at times a roar, of my thoughts and questions forever returning to myself to search there for an explanation of my life and its purpose, into this concentrated tiny hub of dense silent noise came the cackle of a hen from a nearby back garden, and at that moment that cackle, its distinct sharp–edged existence beneath a blue sky with white clouds, induced in me an intense awareness of freedom. The noise of the hen, which I could not even see, was an event (like a dog running or an artichoke flowering) in a field which until then had been awaiting a first event in order to become itself realizable. I knew that in that field I could listen to all sounds, all music.»

From this link you can find the locations of the different stops along the way: Life is Not a Walk Through an Open Field