Antoni Llena has been awarded the 2020 GAC Prize by the Art Galleries of Catalonia.
A pioneer in conceptual art in Spain and of Arte Povera, Antoni Llena has been connected to EINA since its beginnings, where he enjoyed an extensive career as a teacher. Llena himself recalled this in an interview published in the La Vanguardia Magazine on 28 November: “I used to tell my students at EINA: Go and see works in galleries, not always online, because on the way you might fall in love with someone. If you don’t go in person, you don’t see the real size of the work, the emotional experience doesn’t exist. The gallery has to convey it.”
In 2014, to mark the centenary of the birth of Alexandre Cirici, founder of EINA, and to commemorate The Action of 1969, of which he was an instigator, Antoni Llena was commissioned to produce the Mirall sculpture. The work, a stainless steel revolving weathervane in the form of a mask, can be seen now as it is situated on top of one of the trees in the Jardins de Can Sentmenat. All of the details marking the tribute to Alexandre Cirici are documented in the book Recordar Cirici, coordinated by Àlex Mitrani, lecturer on the University Master's Degree in Research in Art and Design, and published by EINA and the Comanegra publishing house.
Mirall, Antoni Llena