Double recognition. That of an entire generation of creative women. And that of the technique of weaving as a language, as a code, as, in the words of the artist herself, “an art relevant to life.” The 2023 National Prize for Plastic Arts, awarded by the Ministry of Culture and Sport and endowed with 30,000 euros, has gone to the tapestries of the Barcelonan Teresa Lanceta (1951), which last year was the subject of a major retrospective at the Museu d ‘Art Contemporani in Barcelona and at the IVAM in Valencia curated by Núria Enguita and Laura Vallés.
Lanceta, unlike other artists who have used weaving and its techniques to transfer it to contemporary art, wanted to show directly that weavings were works of art, that art is in the so-called fine arts but also in the popular, in the crafts and in the considered minor arts, avoiding the discourse that separates artistic objects from everyday life.
From living with the Berber women of the Middle Atlas, she learned a universal art that has accompanied her in her career, understanding the importance of repetition structures and geometries in the popular arts of many continents and in the avant-garde of the 20th century. The Raval neighborhood of Barcelona, ??where he spent his formative years, has also marked his life and his work: there he shared experiences with the gypsy community and from there emerges his need to talk about what is broken and mended, but also of the relevance of popular knowledge and experiences and of life in common.
The jury of the National Plastic Arts has recognized Lanceta “for an artistic practice sustained over time that rescues a feminine, vernacular and collective language.” “Awarding Lanceta is recognizing a generation of women, the technique of weaving as a language, a primordial code of humanity far from the patriarchal through which it has come into contact with the cultures of various groups such as the Roma population, the Moroccan nomadic weavers or the residents of the Raval”, they have valued. And they have added that “Lanceta reviews the modern idea of ??authorship directing its practice towards collaborative formats. Artistic traditions and ways of life with which she has maintained a dialogue through her tapestries, paintings, drawings and her theorizing. Both her practice and the questions she raises enjoy great reception among artists of later generations.”
With a degree in History from the University of Barcelona and a PhD in Art History from the Complutense of Madrid, Teresa Lanceta has been a teacher at the School of Architecture of Alicante and the Escola Massana in Barcelona.
The jury, chaired by Isaac Sastre, general director of Cultural Heritage and Fine Arts of the Ministry of Culture, and acting as vice president, Mercedes Roldán Sánchez, deputy general director of State Museums, was made up of Rogelio López Cuenca, 2022 National Plastic Arts Award ; María Jesús Martínez, director of the Art Gender Nature Institute of Basel; Marta Rincón, cultural manager; Javier González Hontoria, director of the Patio Herreriano Museum; Soledad Gutiérrez, researcher and exhibition curator; Agustín Pérez Rubio, independent commissioner; Aurora Fernández Polanco, professor of Theory and History of Contemporary Art at the Complutense and Nekane Aramburu, at the proposal of Women in the Visual Arts, cultural manager, museologist and theorist.
