Josep Ponsatí (Banyoles, 1948) taught the volume workshop at EINA between 1970 and 1974. As part of the course, Ponsatí proposed different experiences, the most important of which was carried out with white elastic cloth bags that allowed students to get inside of them and create different shapes and volumes. The shapes could be thought of as sketches for a sculpture.
These experiences fell under the scope of conceptual art, in which the most important aspect is not the result, but the process. Many of these works left behind no trace beyond the documentary photographs that represent the only permanent manifestation of the sculptures.
In the 1970s, EINA was deeply immersed in a creative and participatory process. At that time, the more or less rigid curriculum that had been established until then was abandoned in favour of a pedagogical programme that focused on the regular programming of experimental workshops, courses, and seminars.
The volume projects that Ponsatí proposed to EINA students took root in the Bauhaus methods applied by László Moholy-Nagy and Johannes Itten.
Ponsatí began his artistic activities towards the end of the 1960s in the field of plastic and metal sculpture. In 1970, he proposed a conceptual event at the Anthropos bookshop in Barcelona in collaboration with Robert Llimós. In 1971, he brought his inflatables idea to life, the third of which was exhibited in Granollers (May 1971), which involved mobile structures full of helium that took off into the sky guided by the wind.
Between 14 and 16 October 1971, the Seventh International Congress of the ICSID (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design) was held in Ibiza, the only one that has taken place in Spain to date. Nearly 1,300 designers and artists from around the world participated. Many of them were housed in the space that became the icon of that edition of the Congress: The Instant City, a modular inflatable structure based on a simple construction system with geometric figures.
For the grand opening of the congress, Antoni Miralda, Joan Rabascall, Dorothée Selz, and Jaume Xifra presented the Multicolour Ritual, a dinner with colourful food and plastic clothing, and basic color masks held within the Instant City itself.
At the time, Andre Ricard was vice president of the ICSID, and Josep Antoni Blanc, a professor at EINA, was a member of the Spanish board. Albert Ràfols Casamada, the director of EINA, as well as a group of students, including Lluís Pau, and professors, headed by Josep Ponsatí, also participated with a presentation.
As part of the congress, with sponsorship from ADI-FAD-Aiscondel, Josep Ponsatí built a new inflatable structure in Sant Miquel Bay with the support of Enric Pagans, Juanjo Jiménez, and the Urquinaona Open Design Studio. The structure was made up of 11 x 3.5 m white plastic modules inflated with helium.
For Alexandre Cirici, Ponsatí's proposal "incorporated playfulness into normal life" and was committed to the development of "moving art" that was more advanced than Calder's mobiles. The work was also characterized by the organic forms that were integrated into the landscape as opposed to the straight lines and geometry of architecture or abstract painting. The work featured another fundamental difference. As it was in constant motion, the open shape changed as randomness constantly affected it. The work had no meaning, nor did it symbolize anything at first, although it eventually became the iconic hallmark of that edition of the congress.
Once again, Cirici believed that the work could be framed within the Arte Povera movement due to the simplicity of the materials and the fact that any sort of economic value was rejected. It could also be framed within landscape art as it sought to form part of nature.
In 1972, Ponsatí and participating EINA students proposed the third inflatable piece: Piece III, Cap de Creus – Cadaqués – Benidorm. On 6 December of that year, the film of the third inflatable sculpture by Josep Ponsatí was screened at EINA.
In 2012, MACBA brought new life to the documentary material from that historic event in the Utopia is possible exhibition.
Photographs by Mezza Mardones (ICSID Congress), Albert Font (experience at EINA), and Lelis Marqués (portrait).