Volaverunt Goya’s engravings revisited by the contemporary eye Temporary exhibition

The written word is decisive in some of Goya's engravings. The artist, who was a frequent attendee at gatherings of enlightened writers and sometimes took inspiration from the satirical literature of his time, subtitles some of his engravings and drawings with comments, jokes and wordplay. They are legends or epigraphs with concise, incisive prompts, which often help to understand the image, but which on other occasions cause misunderstandings.

Irene Solà (Malla, 1990) draws on Goya legends to create Esto sí que es leer (This is reading), a cento (a literary work composed of fragments from other works) made from 17 prints of the Caprices and 13 from Disasters of war. Solà gives shape to this new literary and visual composition that is based on the aphorisms of the plates, thus converting prose into verse.

The live reading of the poem accompanies this new arrangement of the engravings, which alternates between the caricatured and humorous narrative and mischievous scepticism.

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