The Dutch artist Karlijn Surminski (1978) has created a magnificent series about the Barcelona Lockdown of 2020. Paintings with stories, emotions, videos and music.
It's only been 4 years this winter since everything locked down in Barcelona, but it seems like ages ago... Every evening at 8 p.m. the entire neighborhood clapped for the people who worked in healthcare. Everyone stood on the balcony and there was a moment of contact between the neighbors. Also a moment to look with curiosity at what was happening behind all those windows. A kind of voyeurism, which Karlijn had also seen in paintings by the American painter Edward Hopper (1882-1967). Some of her paintings are direct 2020 versions of a Hopper painting, but most are true or imagined glimpses into the urban landscape of Barcelona during this lockdown.
To return to this world for a moment, most paintings appeal to your imagination and old emotions are quickly evoked. Karlijn: “Everyone experienced the lockdown in their own way. Small and big drama, small and big happiness, but all to a large extent deprived of our freedom. What does that do to you? And how do you deal with that?”
There will be several events organised during this exhibition, but first a festive opening on Thursday, February 1, at 7 p.m. in Ateneu El Poblet on C/Nàpols 268-270 (in between Provença and Rosselló, near to metrostation Sagrada Familia), where live music will be played by Karlijn´s neighbours Ahmad and Aseel from Athrodeel, exactly like they did during the first 69 days of Karlijn´s ´Barcelona Lockdown´.
