‘My Mediterranean’, one of Catany’s most iconic exhibitions, was first shown at the Casal Solleric in Palma in 1991, and later travelled to the Palau Robert in Barcelona and the prestigious FotoFest in Houston.
Now, more than 30 years later, it arrives in Llucmajor in a revision that could be seen in 2024 at the Fundació Josep Pla in Palafrugell (Girona), as part of the XIII Biennal de Fotografia Xavier Miserachs, and in which Catany’s photographs establish a brilliant dialogue with the words of the great catalan writer.
My Mediterranean. Toni Catany & Josep Pla
“Oh, the Mediterranean! The immense complexity!”
Josep Pla. Notes disperses (Scattered notes), OC XII
The photography exhibition by Toni Catany entitled “My Mediterranean” opened in Casal Solleric in Palma de Mallorca in February 1991. This exhibit offered Catany’s vision of the Mediterranean, crafted based on numerous trips: from Alexandria to Naples, from Llucmajor to Tétouan, and from Djerba to Venice, among others. That exhibition, as rich in techniques as it was unified in its formal creation, reflected the regions and their people without prejudices. Catany always sought beauty in the essence of geographical landscapes that became emotional landscapes at the same time. It should come as no surprise that this exhibition was a great success and received widespread praise, marking a major milestone in Toni Catany’s artistic career.
Today, more than thirty years later, we are revisiting that exhibition while recovering its essence. Rejecting formal unity, we are presenting the original works: prints from the era, with their richness and diversity, along with others that include techniques that Catany explored later. In addition, we created a dialogue between these photos and the literary impressions of Josep Pla, another great traveller who also left testimony, written in his case, of his love for the Mediterranean.
This exhibition seeks to place Toni Catany among Pla’s homenots, the intellectuals who had overcome conformity and ignorance, the people who help us to understand who we are and what we are like. Although Catany never took a photo of Josep Pla, we know that the photographer admired the Empordà-born writer. It is also clear, even if neither of the two said so explicitly, that their viewpoints on the landscape and on the people coincide. As we can appreciate throughout the exhibition, the two artists were able to highlight the invisible traces, the common ground and the family atmospheres shared by all of the people united by the Mediterranean. The past is our present, as the power of a photographic or literary image is its durability.
Staking a claim for diversity, the photos and words of these two artists complement each other, forming a symbiotic result that multiplies the richness and relevance of their observations for today’s world. Through Catany’s photographs and Pla’s words, today, perhaps more than ever, we are still striving to ensure that no one from the Mediterranean ever feels like an outsider.