The event in Barcelona was held at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, and was attended by the Minister of Culture of the Catalan government, Ferran Mascarell; the director of the Institut Ramon Llull, Vicenç Villatoro; the curator of the project, David G. Torres, and the artist, Mabel Palacín. There was also a contribution from the acting director of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Salvatore Schirmo.

Vicenç Villatoro endorsed the procedure used to choose the work to represent Catalonia and the Balearics at the Biennale: a prestigious international jury chaired by Vicent Todolí, former director of the Tate Modern in London. Turning to the question of money, he commented: "The project is ambitious but at the same time frugal. It cost €750,000, which is 25% less than in 2009. The aim is to have a presence at the world's main cultural events. We can thus create a brand image for Catalonia and the Balearic Islands". Villatoro added: "We don't want to merely take things abroad, but rather to position them there. Position them somewhere that is already working. This is part of the IRL's philosophy. We want to go somewhere where there are some networks, knowledge and a public, and look for relationships. We are doing this in Venice with Sale, a very well-established collective with whom we are organising a cycle of lectures that will take place in parallel with the exhibition". 

For his part, David G. Torres explained, "Palacín's work  is a reflection on the status of the image in today's world, which is saturated with it. Everything has changed: every day a hundred million photos are uploaded to Facebook and 1,500 years of video is watched on YouTube".

Mabel Palacín explained, "A different Venice appears in my work, which has nothing to do with tourist clichés. Some friends have asked me whether I was working with images of Detroit or Manchester".

Finally, minister Ferran Mascarell declared, "The Venice Biennale is very important for internationalisation. We want to be in the world, not just be there, but to act, to enter into dialogue. It's not a question of setting up "Catalan Weeks", but other things. Internationalisation is a long-term project and Venice fits into it". Mascarell also defended the value of culture: "Mabel Palacín 180º is an example of how one may engage in meaningful dialogue through art. And to show that culture is not just ornamental, but fundamental. At times of crisis like these, culture has got answers".

Presentation in Palma

In Palma, the project was presented by the Minister of the Presidential Department of the Balearic Government, Albert Moragues; the deputy director of the Institut Ramon Llull, Fanny Tur; the Menorcan designer responsible for the pavilion's image, Àlex Gifreu; and the Pollença-born artist Joan Cortès, who was a member of the jury that selected the project.

Minister Moragues declared himself proud "to be able to announce that for the first time in history, the Balearic Islands are participating in the Venice Biennale. If the Institut Ramon Llull did not exist, this presence of the Islands at the Biennale would not have been possible".

For her part, the deputy director of the IRL, Fanny Tura, stressed that "through the Mabel Palacín:180º project, cultural and artistic creativity in the Balearic Islands will be at the nerve-centre of contemporary artistic movements for five months".

Mabel Palacín: 180º

The starting point of Mabel Palacín: 180º is an image of an indeterminate place in Venice, photographed with extraordinary precision and detail. Subsequently, the same view is shot in video, so that this image is split into multiple points of view and different micronarratives. In this way, a series of contrasts is produced between the still image and the moving image. In the words of the curator, David G. Torres, "the two proposals, the still filmed image and the videos which are at the vanishing points, reflect on the city as a setting for collectivity and a backdrop on which to develop different visions or views".

The title of Palacín's project comes from what is known in cinema as the "180-degree rule", which determines how characters must be positioned with respect to the camera to avoid confusing the viewer. Mabel Palacín: 180º is a response to the loss of the link that used to exist between a photograph and reality and centres on a change of the viewer's position with respect to the images and their implications. Mabel Palacín's work is not only a reflection on the image in the contemporary situation but also seeks to offer a working basis on which art could reconstruct a usage of images.

The Catalonia and Balearic Islands project can be seen at Magazzino del Sale number 2. It will be open from 4 June until 30 October this year.