In June 2025, we opened the exhibition “altres mons – other worlds” at the Museo del Ebre in Tortosa. The focus was on the works of Catalan artist Sonia Eva Domenech, particularly her series of circles. Drawing on symbolism and using abstract painting techniques, the artist creates space for the viewer and their thoughts and feelings. Domenech’s art is to make concrete proposals through color, structure, and geometry, without dictating or otherwise limiting the viewer’s imagination.
Domenech developed and realized many of these works during her time at CASAdelDRAGON. She lived there with Juan Petry, a Spanish-German artist who has been opening his home to creatives from all over the world for almost 40 years. Consequently, Domenech invited Petry to participate in this exhibition with his current project #buenavistacervera. This artist invites people to join him in workshops to create benches from recycled pallet wood. Each bench offers the opportunity to simply sit down. Thus, each bench is also an opportunity to slow down, to rest, to gather one’s senses.
This is also a good prerequisite in a museum exhibition for taking a closer look at and enjoying the works on display. The benches are not high. They appear more like furniture than sculpture, and that is also the artist’s intention. In this respect, they fit harmoniously into the show and pay homage to Domenech’s art.
Each bench, however, also carries messages. “Petry’s art is actually the art of communication, or communication as art”, says Cologne artist and curator Jo Pellenz about Petry. Thus, each bench also carries messages that inspire further thought.
Each bench, however, is also an invitation to social interaction, between the person temporarily occupying the bench—that is, taking possession of it—and those around it.
Thus, each bench also has a very concrete offer for the visitor. There’s a bench for discovering and exchanging seeds, a bench called Game B with a playing field, a bench with a small showroom—an exhibition within an exhibition, combined with an invitation to become active as a creative artist. And there’s a bench that visitors can sit on, indicating the “degree of desired interaction with bystanders” on a scale beforehand.
The benches appear—intentionally—inconspicuous. They consciously hold back their approach. The focus is on the inquiring mind, the one with an eye for detail, who enjoys the intellectual process of understanding and who therefore knows that this also has a lot to do with grasping and touching.
As always, at the beginning, people stand before this art—especially in a museum—in an almost sacred reserve. No one touches the works. But their legs become heavy, the will to linger, but the search for the object that provides relief finds the bench. And once the first person in the room has overcome their fear of contact in a museum context, there’s no stopping them. Then people sit down and stay. And with the relaxation, the motivation to engage with the art on the wall and also with the object they have just occupied increases.
One bench is titled “PO Box #01.” This bench is a mailbox, but not located in the premises of a post office. This mailbox is mobile. The artist moves it around Europe and invites mail artists from all over the world to use it. These artists write letters and postcards to this mailbox, and the works find their destination in a compartment in this bench.
There they wait for the brave guest who reaches in, not quite knowing what to expect. Yes. They find mail from all over the world. For most people, this has already become something unusual, rare, or even never experienced before. The visitors hold an envelope in their hands. And they are uncertain. They would like to know what’s inside. The envelope is painted and looks promising. But is it permissible to open the envelope so easily? The visitor makes eye contact with the museum attendant, who nods. Anticipation grows. Yes. Thus, the guest receives another gift, art from the world of mail art, and even more, the chance to initiate communication with an artist who has given him a gift, without expectation, without intention beyond the idea of simply rejoicing that someone will be pleased to receive this mail.
The visitors sit on the benches. They have stayed much longer than they intended. They have seen Domenech’s works, found their favorite. They have had a different experience, they have taken possession of space in the public museum. They have become open to these other worlds.
Credits: Thanks go to the people behind the scenes, like Daniel, who set up this exhibition and ensured access for visitors. Thanks also go to the many mail art artists who participated in the #buenavistacervera – mobile box office – project and sent their mail. Thanks go to Francesca for her seed bank and her determination to ensure good food is available for future generations. Thanks go to the museum and the association behind it, which, with its funding and commitment, keeps this place open for contemporary art.
And special thanks go to Sonia Eva Domenech for her work, in which she draws strength from autobiographical experiences to show other worlds and invite us all to explore them.