Taller Sert: the spirit of Miró returns to his creative space

On 17 December 2018, the Fundació Miró Mallorca – the museum which honours the life and work of Catalan artist Joan Miró located in the Balearic Capital of Palma – will re-open the famous ‘Taller Sert’ (Sert workshop) following ten months of renovations.

Designed by Miró’s friend Josep Lluis Sert – the workshop, which is connected to his house – became the artist’s main studio in 1956, and was where he created most of his work until his death in 1983. The artistic venue will be re-opened with new content to further reflect the life and work of the pioneering Catalan artist and to further convey the spirit of the artist whilst showing the studio exactly how it was before Miró passed away.

The ‘Taller Sert’ was renovated with the aim of further enhancing the visitor experience by showcasing the real environment in which the artist worked, which plays a key role in understanding Miró’s art and the factors that influenced the pieces he created in the last stages of his life.

The Fundació Miró Mallorca has introduced a new video, produced by Spanish production agency ‘La Perifèrica’, which explains the motifs behind the renovation of the workshop by showing a discussion had between Sert and Miró about the architecture of the building. The video plays a key part in answering questions about the workshop and the role it plays in highlighting the life and work of Joan Miró.

A new entrance has also been built on the east side of the building, which first leads into a small room (previously a storage space) before continuing into the main workshop, designed to reflect Miro’s artistic ritual of confronting the creative process before he started to paint.

Whilst the previous ‘Taller Sert’ featured original Miró paintings and sculptures from the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró a Mallorca collection, these have been replaced with 65 exact replicas due to concerns with the conservation of the pieces of art. Some of the original pieces can still be seen inside the Fundació Miro Mallorca.

Throughout the course of 2018, the Department of Collections of the Fundació Miro Mallorca conducted in-depth research into the life and work of Joan Miró by examining photographs, videos, artefacts and personal objects left behind by the artist, in order to exactly replicate his creative thinking, as well as the way he worked within the space.

Each tile and paint stain in the workshop was photographed and documented during the renovation project with the aim of developing a future cataloguing project that will allow the Fundació Miró Mallorca to attribute each mark to a specific work of art.