We ianugurate “In essence” by Katerina Alavedra-Duchoslav
Last Thursday, September 7, we inaugurated the first of the exhibitions of the 2023-2024 Season that we are just now starting.
Moments before the inauguration, Josep M. Vallès, mayor of Sant Cugat, visited us. In the photo, the art historian and critic, Imma Pueyo, gives a technical commentary on the exhibition, accompanied by the artist and Ignasi Cabanas, director of the Sala Rusiñol.
A large audience gathered to discover the new collection “In essence” that Katerina Alavedra-Duchoslav presents in Sant Cugat.
In the image, the consul of the Czech Republic in Barcelona, Hble Mr. Jaime Martín Puchol, Ignasi Cabanas and the art critic Imma Pueyo, who will dedicate these paraules to the artist and his work:
“At the end of this very hot summer of 2023, the Sala Rusiñol inaugurates a new artistic season thanks to the effort and enthusiasm for art of Ignasi Cabanas, Victoria and Carme. The exhibition calendar begins with the painter Katerina Alavedra-Duchoslav, this being the sixth time she has exhibited her work in this space.
In the artistic work of Katerina Alavedra-Duchoslav we will observe, broadly speaking, two themes: the urban landscape and nature. The urban aspect focuses on two territories: Czechia and Catalonia and does not hesitate to highlight Prague mainly, Barcelona and Sant Cugat. In this exhibition, Czech and Catalan landscapes and compositions with natural elements are the object of his study that has been connected with the title: In essence. In essence, it means the set of properties of an object that make it what it is and can also express the different conditions of identity. Along these lines, Prague is designated a set of historical-artistic properties with others close on an emotional and sentimental level that connect with the painter’s childhood and youth. In Barcelona and Sant Cugat she establishes a set of functional properties such as the space of belonging, physically close, it is the place where she walk, where she reside.
The love that Katerina Alavedra-Duchoslav feels for Prague, the city in which she was born, is manifested when she selects its unique buildings and its exceptional architectural heritage that characterizes it. The artist highlights the most representative buildings and places, the Charles Bridge, the cathedral, the central squares, the Malá Strana tower, the surroundings next to the Vltava River. The city is represented from above as in the flight of a migratory bird, now we would call it from a drone, visualizing it in geometric order, as a set of pieces that can be fitted together. Katerina offers the viewer of the work a way to see the city and from different points of view.
In Barcelona she chooses to highlight an emblematic enclave such as Passeig de Gràcia. The point of reference for the perspective to contemplate the city is from above, from a space of interior light, in front of a clock that symbolically represents both the country of the weather and that of rest, of calm. The exterior and interior are also manifest in the themes surrounding nature: the landscape of Sant Cugat and the compositions with flowers or interior landscapes. We emphasize that the essence, the sign of identity, is to express the intimacy, the delicate personal space, order with selected objects. A theme in which Katia creates a figurative synthesis of ordered sensations that are very light and representative of her work. Katerina Alavedra-Duchoslav’s pictorial process is laborious: on a base made with acrylic she proceeds to capture the continuous path that describes the elements, composes and structures the subject. Next, the painter applies touches of color to a very peculiar and personal pictorial procedure that characterizes her style. The technique generates a structure of created lines that combines the skillful control of the space and the manipulation of the color plans, increasing the vision of the world and balancing the whole. In all the works there is a clear atmosphere where the volumetric effects fit into an urbanism of perspectives and streets filled with the nuanced Central European lighting, different from the Mediterranean.The work contains the sensations that intervene in the imagination of the artist, the symbolic time of the emotions, the physical space belonging to a child, the personal space and all the folds that configure the concept in essence. Bravo to Katerina Alavedra-Duchoslav. I admire her ability to work and continue reflecting on her current work”.
Next, it was the artist who addressed the attendees explaining the motivations for this new work while remembering that this is the sixth individual exhibition she has presented at the art gallery.
Next, the Czech writer Monica Zgustová (on the left of the image) dedicated some emotional words to Katerina and read some poems.
Here are other moments of the inauguration:
