A tribute to the sea signed by Miquel Barceló and Pere Gimferrer | Culture

Volume 49 of La cama sol, the collection of semi-artisanal books published by the label of the same name, brings together the poet and academic Pere Gimferrer with the Mallorcan painter Miquel Barceló. “From the beginning Gimferrer told us that he wanted to work with Barceló,” explains the publisher’s founder, Javier Santiso, on the phone. The poet adds that he knew that the artist wanted to do it and, although he did not participate in the selection of images, he did pose in 2010 for one of the works included in the book.

The pandemic arrived and the project Marineando The book was extended over time until last February, when it came out of the printing press “bound in paperback with flaps and inside in sheets of eight”, as described at the end of each of the 1,550 copies. On June 11, the co-authors finally appeared on the same stage, in an event at La Pedrera in Barcelona in which Eduardo Mendoza spontaneously ended up reading the poems that Pere Gimferrer refused to recite. “It was a unique call that took us many months to organize,” Santiso emphasizes.

La cama sol is a publishing house specialising in carefully edited books that combine fine art and poetry, in line with the style of publications that were made in France in the 20th century with the work of, for example, Joan Miró. The label maintains a subscription model, so members of its “club” receive all the titles that are published over the course of a year (between eight and 10).

In the presentations it is possible to acquire a single title and in the case of Marinating The book is on sale in Pedrera itself on the occasion of the exhibition We are all Greek by the Mallorcan artist, which will close this Friday, June 30. Precisely the day before, this Thursday, June 29, La cama sol organizes a reading of another of his recent titles. Also published in February, a day of happiness, brings together in its pages the realist painter Antonio López with the musician and writer Pascal Quignant. The artist’s work appears interspersed with the texts of the French author, winner of the Goncourt in 2002 and the Formentor in 2023, a key figure in France in both the literary and musical fields. The act around A day of happiness It will be held at 6 p.m. at Casa de Vacas in the Retiro Park in Madrid and Miguel Tadeo will participate and Jorge de Juan will read.

Two portraits of Gimferrer, one of them done on a black cloth with bleach and whose reproduction opens Marinating, and more than 20 reproductions of drawings taken from Barceló’s travel notebooks made between 2007 and 2023, are interspersed with the 16 poems. Gimferrer originally published the Catalan verses of this collection of poems in the Proa publishing house (Marijenant, 2016), but thanks to the translation by Justo Navarro they appear for the first time in Spanish. “Gimferrer insists that Navarro is now the true author,” says Julio Andreu on the phone from Barcelona, ​​where he serves as artistic director of the label.

Dedicated to his grandfather, who “made Stendhal read,” the images that flood Gimferrer’s verses explode in this careful book in the colors with which Barceló describes octopuses, squid, sardines, crabs, seahorses and ships that sail the sea. “Life has the light of a sea breeze,” writes the poet, and that same light floods the pages with color with Barceló’s strokes.