>> The exhibition, which can be visited until June 10, highlights the collaboration between museum and university to bring heritage closer to new generations of artists through an experience of research, creation and technological experimentation.
>> The exhibition “Modernism: Dialogues between art, matter and technology” is based on ceramic panels from the museum and brings together works created by students of the Bachelor of Fine Arts program at the ADEMA University School
>> The exhibition’s curator, Concepció Bauçà de Mirabó, highlighted that the project was developed using an innovative methodology, which allowed the direct study of the heritage preserved in the museum to be brought into the university classroom.
>> The project transforms modernist ceramics into a starting point for reflecting on art, memory, and contemporary creation.
The Museu de Mallorca has opened this afternoon the exhibition “Modernisme: Diàlegs entre art, matèria i tecnologia”, a show that connects modernist heritage, contemporary artistic creation and new technologies through works made by students of the Bachelor of Fine Arts at the ADEMA University School.
The exhibition, which will remain open until June 10, takes as its starting point a collection of ceramic panels belonging to the Museu de Mallorca. Using these pieces, the students have developed an interdisciplinary research project focused on the tiles that adorned and decorated Modernist buildings between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, examining their techniques, uses, forms, and symbolism.
The project was developed using a project-based learning methodology, which allowed for the direct study of the museum’s collection to be brought into the university classroom. The students approached modernism not only as a historical or stylistic period, but also as a field of formal, material, and symbolic experimentation from which to generate new artistic interpretations.
The exhibition’s curator and professor at ADEMA Fine Arts, Dr. Concepció Bauçà de Mirabò, emphasized that the exhibition “allows us to observe how heritage can continue to attract and generate knowledge when it comes into contact with the artistic vision of our students.” “Modernism here doesn’t appear as a static image of the past, but as a living material that the students have researched, interpreted, and transformed through their own artistic languages. Modernist ceramics become a starting point for considering the relationship between art, memory, and contemporary creation,” she noted.
In this sense, the exhibition presents a journey that begins with historical research in the Art History course and progresses toward artistic production. First-year students have learned about the creation process of a ceramic mural from that period, from its inception to the final result, by creating a collaborative panel in the Fundamentals of Sculpture course. They have also developed a collection of prints using the embossing technique as part of the Fundamentals of Printmaking course.
For their part, the second-year students have reinterpreted the modernist language through different artistic proposals, incorporating contemporary languages and information and communication technologies in the context of the subject of Art and New Technologies.
Xisco Duarte, curator and lecturer at ADEMA, indicated that one of the project’s strengths lies in “its ability to bridge disciplines, generations, and ways of understanding creation.” “We wanted the students to go beyond simply reproducing a modernist aesthetic, and instead understand its processes, materials, and symbolic weight so they could engage with it from a contemporary perspective. The exhibition speaks of ceramics, but also of learning, collective processes, and how technology can broaden our interpretation of heritage,” Duarte stated.
The exhibition brings together works that explore the relationship between art, materials, and technology, and proposes a view of the museum as an active learning space. Rather than a purely contemplative approach, the project invites visitors to understand the museum’s collections as tools for research and creation.
Through ADEMA, the initiative strengthens the link between university art education and local cultural institutions. The work developed by the students highlights the importance of creating educational experiences in contact with real collections, professional processes, and exhibition contexts.
The exhibition also highlights the potential of collaboration between museums and universities to bring heritage closer to new generations of artists. The result is a dialogue between the museum and the classroom, between heritage and creativity, between the past and the future, as reflected in the exhibition’s conceptual framework.
The exhibition is curated by Concepción Bauçà de Mirabò and Xisco Duarte. Coordination is by Joan Costa, Dan Norton, and Bartomeu Martínez, while the design is by Marcos Juncal and Tomás Pizá.
Verónica Beltrán, Neus Benítez, Ema Boanca, Francina Bover, Lara Camps, Patricia Canet, Irene de la Osa, Kaya Kesgin, Aina Mateu, Marta Mut, Natalia Sofía Pabón, Dean Joshua Rapisura, Joaquín Scapinachis, Joel Sebastián, Angeline Leonor Serrano, Eulàlia Sintes, Nil Taberner, Marina have participated in the production of works Albero, Stella Álvarez, Aina Arrom, Sophia de Lima, Raquel de Prado, Ana Fernandez, Auba Forteza, Nerea Garcias, Marta Hidalgo, Myriam Joaniquet, Concepción Pérez, Candela Belén Russo and Antonio Vidal.
With “Modernisme: Diàlegs entre art, matèria i tecnologia”, the Museu de Mallorca and the ADEMA University School propose a contemporary approach to modernism that does not limit itself to reviewing its forms, but reactivates them from artistic practice, academic research and technological experimentation.