I lounge by the shallow pool, the midday sun heavy on my shoulders, eyes lazily lidded over the story of Sophie and Otto. A reminder of my beloved's absence. The house, draped in a thick coat of crackling terracotta, breathes in the soft winds of Mediterranean bliss. But then - a sharp chirp - a tiny cry from the lavender. I put my book down, its yellowing pages whispering to me now closed. I lean forward. A bird, barely covered by grey juvenile fluff, trembling on legs too new for this world. Startled by my sudden movement, he hops away. A stubborn survivor, disappearing into the perfumed sea of green and purple. I straighten, eyes tracing the shimmering horizon and I feel it then - something gathering in the sky, thickening the air. An electric storm, just like that summer when I was a boy.

A weekend by the empty fireplace, Grandpa hunched over a crossword, coke-bottle glasses tittering on the bridge of his nose, pencil tapping with quiet thoughtfulness. My Grandfather was a farmer, custodian of vast hazelnut and apricot orchards. Taken by the State or fallen into barren wastelands, his fate after the war had ushered him into administration in the local council. Sundays were for quiet meditation. I recall that day for no reason in particular. The lemon yellow canary perched in its enamel-coated cage harmonized with the distant rumble of thunder. Grandpa gasped suddenly, pencil still in midair, listening, as if the storm had sent him a word he hadn’t considered. Today, here, that same hum hovers heavily as I sit by the still pool watching the clouds descend, already knowing what they bring.

Text by Marc Prats-Quintana

THE SHOPHOUSE is pleased to present 39 Days in the Sun, the first solo exhibition in Asia by the London-based artist Marc Prats-Quintana. This new body of works on canvas by the Catalan artist, explores the interlacing concepts of memory and place through the production, reproduction and circulation of personal images. He likens his process to an archeological practice, a journey of observing, categorizing, storing, and retrieving.

Prats-Quintana’s practice reconciles romantic gestures with rational structures. His compositions often piece together fragmented visual clues drawn from both childhood and recent memories. These provide glimpses into intimate moments or views over the Mediterranean landscape that raised him. Grids, crosswords and heat maps provide a schema through which to navigate the images, and offer an insight into how we make sense of the world around us. Prats-Quintana’s work combines and compresses varied times and spaces into singular compositions which examine the formation, destruction, and recomposition of the self through one’s place of belonging.

「我倚靠在淺水池邊，正午的陽光照在我的肩上，眼睛懶洋洋地盯著蘇菲和奧托的故事。提醒我愛人的離去。房子覆蓋著一層厚重且有裂纹的陶瓦，正吹著地中海柔和的海風。但隨後——一聲尖銳的唧唧聲——薰衣草發出了微小的叫聲。我放下書，那泛黃的書頁向我低語，合上了。我向前傾。一隻鳥，身上披著灰色的幼毛，雙腿顫抖面對這個陌生的世界。牠被我突然的動作嚇了一跳，跳開了。一個頑強的倖存者，消失在綠色和紫色的芬香海洋中。我直起身子，眼睛盯著閃閃發光的地平線，然後我感覺到了——天空中的東西聚集在一起，空氣變得更濃了。一場暴風雨，就像我小時候那個夏天一樣。

一個週末，在空蕩蕩的壁爐旁，爺爺弓著背在玩填字遊戲，如可樂瓶底部笨重的眼鏡在鼻樑上咯咯地笑，鉛筆若有所思地輕輕敲著。我的祖父是個農民，管理著一大片的榛子和杏子果園。戰後，他要麽被國家帶走，要麽淪為貧瘠的荒地，他的命運帶他進地方議會的管理部門。星期天是用來安靜冥想。我回憶起那一天，沒有什麽特別的原因。那隻檸檬黃色的金絲雀棲息在漆著琺瑯的籠子裡，配搭著遠處隆隆的雷聲。爺爺突然倒吸了一口氣，鉛筆還在半空中，聽著，好像暴風雨給他一個沒有考慮過的詞。今天，在這裡，當我坐在寂靜的池邊，看著雲下降，同樣的嗡嗡聲沉重地縈繞著，我已經知道它們會帶來什麼。」

文字：馬克·普拉茨-金塔納

THE SHOPHOUSE欣然呈獻工作生活於倫敦的藝術家馬克·普拉茨-金塔納（Marc Prats-Quintana）亞洲首展「日光下的三十九天」（39 Days in the Sun）。展覽將展出這位來自加泰羅尼亞的藝術家的全新繪畫作品，通過私人圖像的生產、覆制和流通，探索了記憶和地點的交錯。他把這個過程比作考古實踐，是一個觀察、分類、儲存和檢索的旅程。

馬克·普拉茨-金塔納的作品將浪漫的姿態與理性的結構協調地結合。他的作品經常將童年和近期記憶中零碎的視覺線索拼湊在一起。這些照片讓觀者們得以一窺親密的瞬間，或欣賞地中海風景。網格、填字遊戲和熱圖提供了一種模式，通過它來導航圖像，並提供了一種洞察我們如何理解周圍世界的方式。

馬克·普拉茨-金塔納的作品結合並壓縮了不同的時間和空間，通過一個人的歸屬來審視自我的形成、破壞和重組。