Panorama 21: Notes for an Eye Fire

An exhibition with works by: Ana Domínguez, El Palomar, Laia Estruch, Arash Fayez, Antoni Hervàs, Rasmus Nilausen, nyamnyam with Pedro Pineda, Claudia Pagès, Aleix Plademunt, Marria Pratts, Stella Rahola Matutes, Eulàlia Rovira, Ruta de autor, Adrian Schindler, Rosa Tharrats, Gabriel Ventura and Marc Vives.


The inaugural edition of Panorama, titled ‘Notes for an Eye Fire’, was launched in 2021 as a museum-wide multidisciplinary triennial dedicated to contemporary practices from and around Barcelona. Structured as a collaborative curatorial platform, each edition would pair a member of the museum team with an external cultural agent. The first edition was co-curated by Hiuwai Chu (Head of Exhibitions, MACBA) and Latitudes, with coordination by Berta Cervantes.

Occupying the 1200m2 top floor of the Meier building, ‘Notes for an Eye Fire’ brought together newly commissioned works alongside recent productions shown in Barcelona for the first time. Spanning painting, sculpture, works on paper and glass, video installation, performance, photography, and textiles, the exhibition was driven by a the commitment to on-site exhibitions as fully embodied experiences unfolding in space. As the “notes” of the title suggested, the exhibition attempted to jot down, to lay out and to connect without claiming to be in any way a definitive reading of the contemporary art scene.

The exhibited works interwove concerns and leitmotifs that emerged through studio visits and ongoing conversations with artists and members of the local art community. Among these were questions surrounding the city’s self-image, notions of reparation and belonging, gender dissidence, and humanity’s relationship with nonhuman life.

The title, drawn from Gabriel Ventura’s 2020 poetry collection, evoked a powerful metaphor that challenged the oculocentric tradition. It encouraged an expanded notion of seeing—one engaging all senses and opening onto alternative ways of navigating the world, remembering, and producing knowledge. The ocular motif subsequently permeated the exhibition’s imagination, through projects exploring theatre and performance, the spatial interplay between stage and auditorium and narrative looping. Such shifts in perspective and scale also encircled how the museum established a connection with its neighbourhood, and vice versa, at a moment when perhaps many were questioning their own place in the world.

Recognising that many visitors remained unable to access the museum in the aftermath of COVID-19 restrictions, significant efforts were made to extend the exhibition’s digital presence. Its website included participant profiles, images of related works, detailed artwork descriptions, as well as behind-the-scenes photographs and videos documenting the exhibition-making process.

A small publication “Passió i cartografia per a un incendi dels ulls” [Passion and cartography for an eye fire], served as the exhibition’s poetic colophon. It featured a new three-part poem–dérive by Gabriel Ventura that decomposed and translated the exhibition’s plurality of voices into a textual topography. As part of the exhibition’s public programme, Ventura and flamenco singer Pere Martínez performed the words in an event that guided visitors through the museum galleries by way of spoken word and song. Designed by Ana Domínguez Studio, the publication combined photographic documentation of the exhibition, with a ghostly evocation of its graphic identity: translucent pages veiled the images and texts, creating an effect of billowing smoke clouds and sudden flashes of light.