Back

Beehave. Interventions throughout Barcelona

Beehave is a project curated by Martina Millà that draws on contemporary artists' interest in honey bees and the key role these insects play in the planet's environmental balance. The project begins at the Fundació Joan Miró with an exhibition based on immersive installations that invite visitors to connect with the world of these insect pollinators. Beginning on 15 March, Beehave will venture out beyond the museum with ten art interventions at different locations throughout Barcelona, with the aim of sparking a debate about the coexistence of humans and bees in cities.

Joan Bennàssar

Miel loca
Location: García de Pou (passeig de Picasso, 12)
Dates: 15/03 - 17/06
Hours: Mondays - Fridays, 9.30 am - 1.30 pm & 4 - 8 pm

Joan Bennàssar's video Miel loca (Mad Honey) shows the hallucinations of a Mexican beekeeper after having ingested toxic honey. In Mexico, bees produce honey that is poisonous due to its high content of agricultural chemicals.

Luis Bisbe

Beews
Location: Plaça de les Glòries (Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, in front of the Museu del Disseny de Barcelona)
Dates: 15/03 - 17/06

Luis Bisbe intervenes in our usual view of the city by creating honey windows through which we can think about the absence of bees in the urban context. A honey filter allows us to appreciate the beauty of this substance while leading us to question our relationship with these insect pollinators.

Alfonso Borragán

La Grieta
Location: El Clot
Dates: 15/03 - 17/06

Residents from the neighbourhood of El Clot (also known as El Clot de la Mel, or 'Honey Hollow') will manufacture 'artificial' honey in the course of several work sessions led by Alfonso Borragán in which, like a human beehive, they will connect as a community with their history. Part of this 'El Clot Honey' will seep out periodically through a crack in the front wall of a building in the neighbourhood as a reminder of the Cantabrian legend of la grieta ('the crack').

Artificial 'El Clot honey' manufacturing: 15/03, 06/04, 08/06, 6 - 9 pm (Espai Antoni Miró Peris, plaça Carme Montoriol, 10) and 13/05, 12 - 14 h (Mercat del Clot, plaça del Mercat, 26)
Activation of La Grieta (carrer de Concili de Trento, 5): 17/03, 07/04, 19/05 at 12 pm
Artificial 'El Clot honey' will be distributed at Pastisseria La Palma (carrer del Clot, 72-74)

Joana Cera

Cera
Location: Centre Cívic Convent de Sant Agustí (plaça de l'Acadèmia, s/n)
Dates: 15/03 - 17/06
Opening hours: Mondays - Fridays, 9 am - 10 pm

Joana Cera collaborates with the chandler Toni Garcia to make a candle out of virgin beeswax that will burn uninterruptedly for the three months of the Beehave project in Barcelona, in step with the unfolding of the project and of spring. The piece rekindles age-old rituals of guarding the flame while paying tribute to a unique substance: the wax produced by honeybees.

Gemma Draper

Betoken
Dates: 16/03, 21/03, 22/04, 01/05, 11/05 & 03/06
Location: Several locations throughout Barcelona

Gemma Draper proposes five meet-ups and tours of different areas in Barcelona on dates linked to ecology, natural cycles and the world of bees. In these five pollinating actions, the artist will hand out tokens or medals with bee symbols, inviting passers-by to partake in the current debate about bee survival and urban apiculture.

16/03 at 6 pm - The bees' dance - Diagonal metro station transfer area
21/03 at 12 pm - First day of spring /The flower route - Meeting point: Joan Güell monument (intersection of Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes and Rambla de Catalunya)
22/04 at 11 am - Fira per la Terra / The beehive route - Meeting point: Beehave stand at Fira per la Terra (Parc central de Nou Barris)
01/05 at 5.15 pm – International Workers' Day / The worker bee route - Meeting point: Plaça Catalunya (at the intersection with av. Portal de l’Àngel)
11/05 at 5.30 pm - Fira de Sant Ponç / The honey and wax route - Meeting point: Herboristeria del Rei (Carrer del Vidre, 1)

In preparation of the worker bee route, the artist will led a banner design workshop at the Fundació Joan Mirón on Sunday, 8 April, 10 am to 2 pm. Limited space. Online reservations

Vadim de Grainville & Marcos Lutyens

Horologium florae. Horologium apum. Succus aevi
Location: Jardins de Laribal (next to the Fundació Joan Miró)
Dates: 15/03 - 17/06
Opening hours: 10 am - 7 pm

Inspired by chronobiology and circadian rhythms, Vadim de Grainville and Marcos Lutyens have recreated and adapted a 'floral clock' to attract honeybees trained to feed from twelve specific flowers at different times of the day.

17/03 at 5 pm (in Spanish) & 6 pm (in English) – Succus Aevi Induction. A journey into the circadian sense of time, in which bees, flowers and humans reflect the arc of the sun. Induction by Marcos Lutyens. Limited space. Online reservations

Anna Moreno

Billennium
Location: Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya (plaça Nova, 5)
Dates: 14/04 - 03/06
Opening hours: Mondays - Saturdays, 10 am - 8 pm; Sundays, 10 am - 3 pm; Public holidays, closed

Anna Moreno speculates about a dystopian future in which honey is the main exchange value, a notion that arose from her research of the communal and modular architecture developed by Ricardo Bofill's Taller de Arquitectura in the 1970s and her readings of the British science fiction author J.G. Ballard.

13/04 at 6 pm - Installation opening at the COAC. Free and open to the public
16/05 at 6 pm - Guided tour led by the artist

Ulla Taipale

L'altre costat
Location: Cementiri del Poblenou (avinguda d'Icària, s/n)
Dates: 15/03 - 17/06
Opening hours: 8 am - 6 pm

Ulla Taipale proposes a literary visit to the Poblenou cemetery, exploring gravestones with angels and bee-related imagery. According to classical mythology, bees have the ability to travel between the realms of the living and the dead. A smartphone app allows participants to follow this itinerary and listen to excerpts of writings from different periods that contain references to these insects.

18/03 at 4.30 pm & 19/05 at 12 pm – Guided tours led by the artist. Reservations required: comunicacio(ELIMINAR)@cbsa.cat
L'altre costat can be activated by downloading the free Arilyn app from the App Store or Google Play

Andrés Vial

Beenation
Location: Trambesòs (T4 Ciutadella/Vila Olímpica - Sant Adrià station)
Dates: 15/03 - 14/05

Beenation is an intervention by Andrés Vial with vinyl decals on the Trambesòs streetcars that refer to coexistence between humans and other animal species in the city - and specifically to the almost complete absence of honey bees. Is Barcelona only for humans, pets, parrots and seagulls? Honey bees claim their right to live in the city.

Pep Vidal

1000 flors
Location: Fundació Joan Miró (Parc de Montjuïc)
Dates: 15/03 - 17/06

Wildflower honey, known as 'mel de mil flors' in Catalan, has a variety of sources, with no particular kind of nectar prevailing over the others. Pep Vidal has gathered the seeds of a thousand botanical species from all over Catalonia and planted them in the lawn in front of the Fundació Joan Miró so that the bees in Montjuïc can produce honey from, quite literally, a thousand flowers.

With the support of: Torrons i Mel Alemany

The Beehave project has been made possible with support from: Biciclot Sccl, Can Masdeu, Cementiris de Barcelona, Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya, Centre Cívic Convent de Sant Agustí, Escola Massana, Espai Antoni Miró Peris, Fira per la Terra, García de Pou, Institut Botànic de Barcelona, Institut de Cultura de Barcelona, Institut Municipal de Parcs i Jardins de Barcelona, Institut Rubió i Tudurí, Montana Colors, Pastisseria La Palma, TMB & TRAM