BARCELONA.- From 19 December 2013 to 16 March 2014 Lúa Coderch presents The Magic Mountain, an exhibition around the paradox of the so-called ‘historical present’, which defines moments that have become memorable based on events that took place on the mountain of Montjuïc.

The exhibition by Lúa Coderch is presented as a container of moments. All the elements in the show are kept in a storeroom created by the artist at Espai 13, imitating the municipal warehouse in Via Favència, where the Ajuntament de Barcelona stores sculptures and material withdrawn from public spaces. Throughout the seventy-two days of the exhibition, the artist will bring out one element each day and place in the gallery in a device especially prepared for the occasion.

The seventy-two pieces that Coderch will present throughout the exhibition are in different formats: from video, audio and photography, to sculptural objects and archive images. Some have been specifically created, others are appropriations by the artist. All the stories appearing daily at Espai 13 are collected in a publication that acts as a calendar and record of the activity. It will be released on the day of the opening and will remain at the visitors’ disposal until the end of the exhibition.

Each of the seventy-two episodes in the exhibition relates to the historical imaginary of the mountain of Montjuïc. Montjuïc has become the home of moments that are defined as a ‘historical present’, from the 1929 International Exposition to the 1992 Olympic Games. Coderch explores the imaginary of these moments, related to Barcelona’s urban expansion and historically linked to events, tourist icons and official campaigns.

This is the second exhibition in the Preventive Archaeology cycle, curated by Oriol Fontdevila as part of the activities commemorating the 1714 Tercentenary. Over the 2013–14, four other artistic proposals are included featuring exhibitions by Oriol Vilanova, Lúa Coderch, Lola Lasurt and Antonio Gagliano. They propose a reading of the collective memory presenting different forms of recounting history from the perspective of the present. As in the topographic work that precedes all archaeological excavations, the programme traces the legacies and elements that have survived to this day and are our link to the past.