16/01/08 The Eurostars Laietana Palace**** Hotel (Barcelona) presents, from 16 January to 1 March, an exhibition entitled ‘Landscapes from the Hinterland’. This is a display in which the Catalan artists, ElsaPonsand Mercedes Roglà, transmit the experiences gleaned by both over a series of journeys made through the north of Africa and Istanbul, in the case of Pons and in the French capital, Paris, in the case of Roglà. The official opening of the exhibition will take place at the hotel premises on 16 January, at 8 p.m.

The warm atmosphere, the sandy texture of the desert and the vivid colours of the North African countries are the inspiration for Elsa Pons. The artist from Barcelona also finds in the chaos of Istanbul the vehicle for transmitting the experiences gathered in her travels. For Pons, “each painting is like a small journey to one’s inner self, they are like open windows to the imagination”. Pons plays with forms, colours and atmospheres, creating a dreamlike and magical universe.

The same principle inspires Mercedes Roglà, although in this case her creations are based on the city of Paris. “It’s a city that offers you at one and the same time Baudelaire’s spleen and ideals which embrace you, love you, excite you and, at the same time, destroy you”, asserts the painter. Roglà adds that her intentions are to “work on feelings, the idea of dreams and Paradise”. For the purpose, Roglà includes photography as a visual support for the image and she explains: “I add to photography the pictorial and emotional payload with a dash if colour and even phrases in the form of poems, to endow the work with the character of a visual poem”.