‘Baobab’ by Tacita Dean at the Francisco Godia Foundation in Barcelona
I first saw the works of Tacita Dean, a British artist, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona. In London, I had yet another occasion to see her works at Frieze Art Fair, where she was represented by Frith Street Gallery.
The exhibition “Iceberg. The invisible reality”, held at Barcelona’s Francisco Godia Foundation (April, 10 – May, 18), presents one signficant work of the artist. It invites visitors to reflect on the image, reality and appearances in contemporary art, through pieces of works of art produced since the 1990’s till now.
It showcased Tacita Dean’s film “Baobab”, together with other works of other artists from the Cal Cego contemporary art collection and from the Francisco Godia Foundation’s own collection. “Baobab” was created by chance during a trip to Madagascar to film a total solar eclipse, which later on became the work Diamond Ring (2002). Here she became fascinated with the landscape. The attraction she felt towards baobabs led her to film these “grand, and proud, and supremely special” trees. Majestic in appearance, they have a robust bottle-shaped trunk that stores large amounts of water. Their magnificence is contrasted with the presence of cattle and flies, which reminds us of the fragility of existence and shatters the silence of the landscape. In this film, the time seems to stop.
Most of us remember the appearance of baobabs in the book “The little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, where it is presented as a reflection on patience, discipline, temporality and obsolescence, some of themes always present in Tacita’s works.
Tacita Dean (Canterbury, 1965) is a visual artist, one of the Young British Artists. In 1998 she was nominated for a Turner Prize. In addition to winning prestigious prizes and having her works presented in many important museums all over the world, she has participated in the Venice Biennale in 2003 and 2005 as well Documenta 13 in 2012. She started as a painter, but she quickly moved to other media such as photography, drawing, sound, video, and – above all – 16 mm films. As an artist, she ‘recovers’ forgotten moments from the history and places devoid of symbolism to presents them once again, filled with new meanings.
Art makes us think and talk about different ways of seeing and interpreting the world around us. The sensitivity of Tacita Dean, together with her particular perception, is the very proof of that.
M.A.
