MEV, museu d’art medieval

INSTRUMENTS OF THE SOUL TODAY IN VIC
Organised by the MEV, Museu d’Art Medieval

23 January 2026 – 26 April 2026

Museu de l’Art de la Pell (Exhibition Hall, Joan Triadú Cultural Centre)

The exhibition brings together five contemporary artworks that reflect on the present-day meaning of instruments of the soul through a dialogue between the MEV, the artists Valentina Alvarado Matos, Fito Conesa, Laia Solé, Mariona Moncunill and Pep Vidal, and the religious communities of Vic, under the curatorship of Glòria Picazo.

These works, arising from processes of listening and collaborative work, explore elements shared by different spiritual traditions — such as sound, light, rituals, sacred books and places of worship — and position contemporary art as a space for encounter and reflection on the diversity, coexistence and plurality of the city of Vic.

The five projects seek a balance between presenting first-hand lived experiences and showing absolute respect for diversity. At the same time, they highlight the beauty and harmony that emerge from observing religious rituals. The term religion comes from the Latin relegere, meaning “to read attentively” or “to pay attention”, an attitude that has guided the entire working process. We have listened to a wide range of voices and placed contemporary creation at a crossroads where dialogues and discoveries have converged, but also many doubts: a hybrid situation in which people, cultures and religions coexist and which must undoubtedly form the foundation of our present.

This project reflects on the importance of sacred places in various religious communities present in the city of Vic. In this context, people become a central element through which to observe habits, practices and rituals.

The analysis of space makes it possible to reveal the ways in which sacred places are used and experienced. Textile material, in particular, takes on a central relevance as an element of analysis, as it allows points of contact to be identified between the three religious communities with which the artist has worked: the Congregation of Our Lady of Sorrows, the Sikh community’s gurdwara, and the mosque of the Muslim Community of Vic.

The working process has developed through meetings and workshops that have made it possible to identify the presence of textile elements conceived as instruments of the soul, and the chromatic selection present in the project is closely linked to the importance that each of the three communities attributes to certain colours.

This project aims to create spaces of encounter between different groups in the city of Vic, taking the act of looking as its starting point in order to analyse how a physical agent, light, becomes a tool for observation and image-making. The project explores the actions of seeing, looking and thinking about images through workshops and working sessions involving people connected to the Islamic Centre of Vic and the gurdwara of the Sikh community living in the city.

Throughout this process, silence, understood as a form of resistance and care in migrant and feminist contexts, takes on a central role, as does light as a mediating element between the soul and the sacred. This silence also appears as a space for denouncing the forms of discomfort that migrants often experience.

Likewise, through these workshops and the dialogues established among the different participants, a voice has been given to children’s groups from the Plaça Osona Civic Centre and Dominiques School in Vic, bringing us closer to the way they understand light and silence through their everyday experience and the religious experience of their own community.

His artistic proposals connect the visual arts with music, drawing on its capacity for transformation, connection and cohesion, and especially on its ability to generate community. Sounds become a means of “listening, understanding and sharing”, while spaces are transformed into resonance chambers. This is demonstrated by the musical interventions carried out in Vic’s Sikh temple and in the bell tower of Vic Cathedral.

The project seeks to make the sounds of two religious communities established in Vic “reverberate”. On the one hand, the artist has brought the Sikh community into dialogue with the singer Claudia Schneider, from the Gregorian tradition, as can be seen in the video; on the other, he has connected Bethel Christian Church with the Orfeó Vigatà, as will be seen in a performance taking place in the streets of Vic. These proposals show how, through the listening sessions carried out during the preparation of the project, it is possible to come to understand the other and to share experiences across different cultures, with music as the bond that unites them.

During the working process, the artist observed that in many sacred spaces, objects used to measure time structure and mark the rhythm of their everyday functioning. Time organises the religious practices of the community. For the artist, this multifaith musical encounter offers a way both to emphasise the importance of communal ritual and to transcend it, by bringing religious communities and local musical institutions into convergence.

Garden of Beliefs is a living installation with a central core in the cloister of the Joan Triadú Cultural Centre, extending in the form of small gardens across various Muslim, Christian and Sikh places of worship in the city of Vic.

The project stems from a process of conversation with the city’s religious communities, who shared their knowledge, memories and symbolic relationships with plants, thus creating a garden based not only on canonical texts, but also on the living transmission through which each community constructs its own spiritual landscape.

Drawing on these conversations, as well as research in Buddhist, Qur’anic, Sikh and biblical sources, a selection of species with religious, symbolic and cultural meanings was made, chosen with the guidance and validation of the people who are part of the respective places of worship.

Together, these elements form a multifaith botanical garden dispersed throughout the city, where plants — like people — coexist in the same time and space, reinforced by a shared substrate drawn from different parts of Osona. Garden of Beliefs can be visited in the cloister of the Joan Triadú Cultural Centre and at the places of worship of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Vic, the Sikh community’s gurdwara, and the garden of the Hospital de la Santa Creu in Vic (garden and exhibition furniture design by Oriol Pinell).

The project highlights the fact that plants have, throughout history, been a silent bond between communities, becoming a material image of a possible dialogue: a shared garden that exists only thanks to the voices that have gradually shaped it.

The title of this proposal is drawn from the classification numbers used for religious books at the Pilarín Bayés Library in Vic, indicating that the project revolves around religious books from different faith traditions.

The research, aimed at identifying the lack of religious books representing various faiths currently present in the public library, was carried out through meetings with the Sikh Community, the Muslim Community of Vic, the Islamic Cultural Centre of Vic, Bethel Church and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Evidence of these absences is reflected in the books displayed here and made available to the public.

At the same time, the shelving unit built to present this “library of absences” is directly related to the furniture found in many places of worship. These books are understood as instruments of the soul.

Once the exhibition has ended, all the volumes will be incorporated into the catalogue of the Pilarín Bayés Library, with the aim of fostering dialogue among the participating faith communities and placing them on the same level of cultural representation.

Vic is transformed into a living setting for intercultural dialogue through the project Instruments of the Soul. Today in Vic, promoted by the MEV. It is an initiative that invites us to rethink the relationship between contemporary art, present-day spiritualities and community life, through a programme that extends beyond exhibition spaces to inhabit the city’s streets, gardens, cultural venues and natural surroundings.

The project offers a constellation of artistic and participatory experiences: workshops, ritual actions in nature, concerts, listening sessions, oral storytelling, routes through spiritual gardens, art installations, and innovative formats such as the Human Library and a travelling radio station. Each proposal is conceived as a space of encounter, designed to activate participation, foster coexistence and open up spaces for shared reflection.

The project turns the city into an open creative laboratory, where culture acts as a tool for social cohesion and transformation. It is an invitation to experience Vic from a new perspective, connecting tradition and contemporaneity, art and spirituality, the individual and the community.

Solo exhibition by Isabel Banal, curated by Glòria Picazo, exploring “white” as a distillation of the central axes of the artist’s work: the canvas, the table, the notebook, the pigment, porcelain plates, plaster figurines, nativity lambs…

In her case, white appears as a distillation of some of the key themes in her work: nature, landscape, popular culture, the passing of time, and the self — as a woman. A white that could be understood as a distillate of earth, stripped of all original appearance of colour and texture, yet preserving intact the aroma and flavour of its origin.

The exhibition is accompanied by constellations of invited works that help to visualise the personal and professional universe the artist has shaped throughout her career.

31 January – 11 April
Location: ACVic – Centre d’Arts Contemporànies
Carrer de Sant Francesc, 1
Organised by: ACVic – Centre d’Arts Contemporànies
Free admission

The placement of vessels in spiritual spaces has been present in various cultures as a practice linked to water, sound and ritual. From baptismal fonts to ceramic jars used to modify the acoustics of sacred spaces, these elements have acted as containers and as sensitive material presences.

Entrar en ressonància, by Jan Madrenas, draws on this tradition to present a group of ceramic pieces containing water tuned to a specific pitch. Each piece generates its own sonic response and, together, they create a collective harmonic soundscape that activates the exhibition space as a sensitive system, in dialogue with the presence of bodies.

13 February – 12 April
Location: L’albergueria
Carrer de l’Albergueria, 1
Organised by: L’albergueria and MEV, Museu d’Art Medieval
Free admission

Participatory workshop led by the Iranian artist and practitioner Pegah Khoei, inviting participants to discover the poetry, symbolism and meditative practices of Sufism. We will gather with open hearts and minds to explore the rich tradition of this ancient spiritual path, whose essence lies in the call to the unity of all human beings, in the remembrance of the original source, and in the search for beauty through the whirling dervish dance and the symbolic meanings associated with this practice.

The Meshk-e Sufi ceremony. Meshk invites participants to immerse themselves in the richness of the Sufi tradition and to experience the beauty of devotion. It is a space in which to open the heart, allow the music to lift us, and let the whirling dance connect us with the divine. Music, silence, dance and stillness come together in a journey towards a deep connection with Being, allowing entry into a state of serene ecstasy that in Sufism is called vajd: a reconnection with the wisdom of the heart.

Thursday 5 February 2026, 6.00 pm to 8.30 pm
Location: MEV, Museu d’Art Medieval
Plaça Bisbe Oliba, 3
Organised by: MEV, Museu d’Art Medieval
Registration at the MEV
Free activity

Cants del Pou is a project by the artist Toni Casassas that explores, through traditional-rooted singing, the relationship between a community’s own language and the musical expression that springs from it. It does so by recovering old popular and traditional melodies from the songbook of the Catalan Countries, in order to delve into the very substance of sound and enter into a contemplative and meditative experience.

On this occasion, Toni Casassas presents, together with the musicians Sebastià Bardolet and Joan Miró, the proposal Arrelances. They are joined by musicians of recognised standing and a choir of voices made up of people of different languages and backgrounds: a human mosaic that sings in unison and weaves, out of diversity, an artistic and spiritual bridge connected to the shared roots of sound.

Behind all the languages of the world there is a past, an extraordinary ancestral history, a thread that has united us since the origins of humanity.

Wednesday 11 March, 8 pm
Location: L’Atlàntida, Centre d’Arts Escèniques d’Osona
Carrer de Francesc Maria Masferrer, 4
Organised by: Fundació L’Atlàntida, with the collaboration of the Department of Culture of Vic City Council
Free
→ ticket required
Limited capacity

Credits:
A project by Toni Casassas
Musical direction and coordination: Sebastià Bardolet and Joan Miró
Toni Casassas, singer; Josep M. Cols, piano; Miquel Casals, flutes; Ricard Puigdomènech, guitar; Bruna Bretxa, double bass
Arpi Babamyan, Charleen Cheng, Egbert de Jong, Halima Lamhari, Imane Elouarti, Joan Canillas, Júlia Evans Calm, Maïna Gautier, Marc Fàbrega, Maria Teixidó, Mariama Dieme, Mariana Loss, Pili Pascual Martínez, Sandra M. López H., Sara Gómez, Serena Sgarzi, voices
Production: Cristina Vilar

Religion, faith and the human need to forge links with the unknown lead spiritual systems to rely on objects and symbols in order to build bridges between the earthly world and the sacred.

In many traditions, music becomes the essential language for enabling this connection. Catholic liturgy, for example, structures the Eucharist through sound fragments, sometimes choral and sometimes instrumental, while Bethel Church consecrates the beginning of its service through song and the full celebration of divinity before moving into the word and the ritual.

Conesa proposes a listening session born from an engagement with different faith communities and from the shared experience of feeling. From there, conversations unfold around specific musical pieces that act as bridges, whether explicitly or in a more evocative way. It is an invitation to listen, to let oneself be moved by voices and emotions, and to inhabit that spiritual space which, although collective, often reveals itself most powerfully in intimacy.

Thursday 12 March, 7 pm
Location: Casino de Vic
Carrer de Jacint Verdaguer, 5
Organised by: MEV, Museu d’Art Medieval and Casino de Vic
→ registration at Casino de Vic
Free activity

This special concert for Divendres de Dolors places the focus on choral music, which has long known how to give voice to the silence of death. In the works of Purcell, Bach and Rheinberger, composers rooted in three different contexts of Christianity, that silence is transformed into prayer, consolation and light. Three complementary perspectives that invite us to listen to death not as an end, but as a passage towards peace and transcendence.

Friday 27 March
PRE-CONCERT TALK by Oriol Pérez Treviño
Location: MEV, Museu d’Art Medieval
Plaça Bisbe Oliba, 3
6.30 pm

CONCERT
Location: Església dels Dolors
Carrer dels Dolors, 1
First performance: 8.00 pm
Second performance: 9.15 pm
Organised by: Orfeó Vigatà and Congregació del Dolors
Free activity

“Veus de l’ànima” is an intercultural gathering of oral storytelling and music in which three storytellers from different cultures share traditional tales in their original language, accompanied by percussion instruments. Simultaneous translation, provided by the storytellers themselves, makes the stories accessible to the audience.

The proposal creates a dialogue between word and sound that invites participants to discover cultural richness through the exchange of experiences.

Thursday 9 April, 6.00 pm to 7.30 pm
Location: MEV, Museu d’Art Medieval
Plaça del Bisbe Oliba, 3
Organised by: MEV, the GRECC, Glossa and GREAF research groups of the Faculty of Education, Translation, Sport and Psychology, in collaboration with the U Hub of UVic – UCC
Registration at the MEV — free activity

Fito Conesa’s artistic proposals connect the visual arts with music, drawing on the latter for its capacity for transformation, connection and cohesion and, above all, for its ability to generate community.

The project seeks to “reverberate” the sounds of different religious communities established in Vic, without losing sight of the celebratory and ritual character that accompanies their religious practices. For this reason, the process of observing, listening, understanding and then sharing becomes the central axis of Fito Conesa’s proposal in this concert-procession.

Saturday 18 April, 5 pm
Location: begins at the cathedral bell tower and ends at the MAP
Organised by: MEV, Museu d’Art Medieval
Free activity

Vic still preserves unimaginable spaces hidden behind its streets — places that hold nature, peace and beauty. Entering them never leaves us indifferent, because of the contrast with their surroundings.

Would you like to know why these jewels have remained preserved like natural reserves, despite urban development and change?

The secrets of this resilience stem from a very ancient spirituality, deeply rooted over centuries. Vic has become a particularly distinctive point of reference in this regard.

Saturdays 9 and 16 May 2026, at 9.30 am and 12 noon
Duration: 2 hours
Location: Various spaces in Vic
Organised by: Fòrum Vicus
Registration: visites@forumvicus.cat
Price: €15 per participant

Nowadays, it can be said that everyone is connected, but what kind of connection are we talking about? A wifi connection, or that connection with oneself?

And when it comes to connection with oneself — that is, with the soul — what instruments do we have to make it possible?

Ràdio Clota once again takes to the streets to interrupt the whirlwind of the working week and sit down for conversations that are almost profound.

Intrigued to find out how the people we meet practise faith in their daily lives, a wide range of stories begins to emerge: a short meditation before breakfast, lighting a candle for a grandson’s final exams, writing an important decision on a piece of paper and burning it, making a wish to the moon, secretly confessing to the same old tree… and no doubt a long etcetera of spiritual practices of all kinds.

A radio project that seeks out peripheral and little-frequented spaces in Vic, with random participants, placing all its trust in the uncertain yet everyday course of fate.

Thursday 28 May and 11 June 2026, 6 pm
Location: Streets of Vic
Organised by: La Clota
Free activity

A collective action rooted in rituals of the body, the heart and the soul. The proposal invites participants on a sensory journey through the five senses — movement, breath, voice, gaze and silence — in order to inhabit a space of connection where the personal self and the communal we come together.

The action seeks the origin of rituals in nature and includes the participation of animist and shamanic faith traditions, bringing into relation the diversity of forms of worship present across different spiritualities.

Saturday 20 June 2026, from 10 am to 1 pm
Location: Departure from Plaça Bisbe Oliba
Organised by: L’Estrangera
Registration with L’Estrangera
Free activity

In the square, a collective of photographers sets up their studios as spaces of listening, presence and shared observation. Live portraits are taken of people accompanied by intimate objects charged with meaning — elements that connect them to their spirituality, memory or inner experience. The proposal invites an open encounter between image and essence, where photography becomes an act of attention and recognition of spiritual diversity.

Sunday 14 June, 10 am to 1 pm
Location: Plaça Bisbe Oliba
Organised by: Tres-e-u VicClic
Free activity

The Human Library aims to help improve tolerance and understanding between people. It creates safe spaces for dialogue where people can speak openly about topics considered taboo, bringing together individuals who are very different and who might otherwise never have had the opportunity to share a conversation.

The initiative is based on the idea that we all have prejudices and that we all judge. From this comes the motto Unjudge Someone, which could be translated literally as “unjudge someone”, since prejudices are often internalised and we need to become aware of them in order to break them down.

The format is simple: a personal and honest conversation between a Book and a small group of Readers, with the aim of discovering what lies behind a label that society has attached to certain people.

In this edition, the Books are linked to the themes addressed by Instruments de l’Ànima, such as the experience of a migrant journey or fleeing one’s country of origin, living between two realities and cultures, death and mourning, war, or artistic spirituality. The stories will be told in the galleries of the MEV, which offer a calm and welcoming setting, with the right atmosphere for this kind of encounter.

Date to be confirmed
Location: MEV, Museu d’Art Medieval
Plaça Bisbe Oliba, 3
Organised by: MEV, Museu d’Art Medieval, with the collaboration of Biblioteca Pilarín Bayés
Registration at the MEV