Turpentine. A metaphor for painting
Àlex Nogué and Joan Descarga
Inauguration: Saturday 12 May 2007
7.00 p.m. on the platform of Camallera station
Jordi Font “Camallera station isn’t Finland station”
7.30 p.m. Walk from Camallera to Nau Côclea
Yeun-Hee, Kim “00:00:00”
8.00 p.m. Nau Côclea: Edible presentation of the book
Turpentine. A metaphor for the painting of Joan Descarga and Àlex Nogué, led by Mireia Saladrigues “Dibagatges”.
Turpentine is a product derived from the distillation of resin from the red pine. It is commonly used both in oil painting and in many medicinal essences and ointments. This common use invites a metaphorical exploration that prompts a reflective discourse on the “trementinaires”, or the “women who wander the world” as they were known, whose ingenuity and traditional knowledge of the therapeutic properties of plants enabled them to overcome penury by travelling throughout Catalonia to sell the medicines they had made from woodland products.
The women prepared and transported the miraculous medicine, magical cures and the odd essential placebo, which, like oil paints, were soaked in turpentine.
Its therapeutic function cannot be disassociated from the pharmacological art and culture of plants since ancient times. The single chemical product both in painting and in ointments links the two activities and associates the “trementinaires” with art.
Two bottles of turpentine were produced from the same plant, the red pine. One ended up in the kitchen of a woman in the Pyrenean valley of La Vansa, near La Seu d’Urgell, and the other in the studio of a painter in Barcelona’s Eixample area. When would the bottles come together again? In what form would they appear? What do the “trementinaire” and the painter have in common? Moreover, what do something that soothes pain and another thing that captivates one’s gaze have in common?
The Turpentine display, created especially for Nau Côclea’s exhibition room and surroundings, is intended to pay homage to the “trementinaires” and to prompt reflection on the role of art, of thought and of contemplation in contemporary society.
Turpentine is accompanied by a book of creation and thought, with images by the artists and texts by Joan Frigolé (anthropologist), Xavier Antich (philosopher), Mireya Folch-Serra (geographer), Agustín Valle (professor of aesthetics) and Clara Gari (writer). The book is published by the University of Barcelona.
Several parallel activities will be run during the exhibition:
Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 May. La Vansa Tuixent. “VIII festival of the trementinaires”.
Botanical routes, traditional workshops, night of magic and herb fair.
Presentation of the book “Turpentine” by Àlex Nogué and Joan Descarga
Friday 1 June, 8.00 p.m. Museum of L’Empordà in Figueres.
Joan Frigolé, anthropologist: conference
The “trementinaires” of Vall de la Vansa i Tuixent (county of L’Alt Urgell): an ethnographic perspective. (Entrance free)
Workshop on traditional remedies: the “trementinaires” (turpentine makers and folk healers) and their remedies
Saturday 16 (all day) and Sunday 17 June from 10.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m. Nau Côclea de Camallera
Carme Bosch,
Master craftswoman and specialist in floral art
This workshop will reveal the plants and different resins used by the “trementinaires”. It will involve the preparation of turpentine and other ointments.
* Who were the “trementinaires”? Their trade throughout the year.
* Introduction to the herbs and conifers used by the “trementinaires” and a description of their medicinal applications.
Preparation of turpentine and other traditional remedies.
* Outing to collect and dry different medicinal herbs that grow in our surroundings.
Price: Nau Côclea members (free), non-members 80 euros
