VINCLES. Cuixart in Conversation with the Carmen Thyssen Collection

From 21/02/25 to 04/01/26

The Museu Carmen Thyssen Andorra presents its ninth exhibition: VINCLES. Cuixart in Conversation with the Carmen Thyssen Collection.

Pilar Giró, the exhibition curator, explains:

Art is a privileged medium for expressing ideas, emotions, and perspectives, offering us the opportunity to transcend the boundaries of the everyday and delve into new and unexpected realities.

VINCLES. Cuixart in Conversation with the Carmen Thyssen Collection is an exhibition that invites an extrapictorial exploration of artworks, emphasizing their confluences and connections derived from analogies and affinities, primarily aesthetic and emotional. The goal is to foster a multidirectional dialogue: between the audience and each artwork, between the artworks themselves, and with our own complicity—all while exploring the richness of plural narratives.

The year 2025 marks the centenary of Modest Cuixart (1925–2007). For this occasion, we have chosen him as the central thread in creating an unprecedented interpretation of the Carmen Thyssen Collection. In homage to his humanistic education and love of meaningful conversation, the exhibition’s scientific framework has been constructed using the same methodological principles that guided Cuixart’s work. He never abandoned the principles of Surrealism, inherited from Romanticism and intertwined with Existentialism. He worked with a spirit driven by curiosity and the desire to question the world, as an insatiable reader, music lover, and socially committed individual who constantly strove for freedom despite the challenges it brought him.

Above all, it is this freedom that I wish to thank the Carmen Thyssen Collection and the Cuixart Foundation for. The freedom and trust I have been granted to conceive an exhibition from an unusual perspective—one that is being explored for the first time—demonstrate, yet again, their commitment to cultural innovation and to the evolution of museographic discourse.

Cuixart’s work serves as the leitmotif. Each connection is composed of works by artists from the Carmen Thyssen Collection alongside pieces by Cuixart. At times, the link is thematic; at others, it arises from formal, conceptual, or symbolic affinities. These connections emerge from the interaction of two creative perspectives, in a series of encounters between Cuixart’s visceral energy and the diverse works in the collection—Bores, Casas, Cardona, Feito, Graner, Grau Sala, Martí i Alsina, Meifrèn, Miralles, Music, Sacharoff, Sunyer, Torres García, Urgell, Utrillo, and Villà—allowing visitors to experience this dialogue through pathways that highlight contrasts and resonances.

Following themes that have accompanied Cuixart throughout his career, the exhibition is organized into two sections. The first, Faces and Figures, is divided into two groups: The Mirror of Memory and The Desire of Form. These explore the representation of the human figure, sensuality, and the subconscious, crafting a rich and evocative narrative that invites contemplation. The second, Unusual Nature, is also divided into two parts: Metaphysical Landscapes and Telluric Explorations, which invite visitors to immerse themselves in a dialogue between past and present, modernity and tradition.

As the curator of the Cuixart centenary, launching the celebratory activities with this exhibition is both a privilege and a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with the memories and experiences of my earliest steps as an art historian. Those initial moments ultimately shaped a nearly fifteen-year journey, learning alongside Cuixart himself, who above all taught me never to shy away from the seeds of the unexpected.

For this reason, VINCLES. Cuixart in Conversation with the Carmen Thyssen Collection speaks to us of connections, unexpected encounters, and the magic that arises when the artist, the collection, and the audience come together in a shared space.

The exhibition will be on display on the ground floor of the former Hostal Valira from February 21, 2025, to January 4, 2026.