TATE-a-licious

The TATE Modern continued its long weekend long celebration of its first rehanging since it opened in 2000.

Today they staged the puppet show Mori el Merma, a collaboration between Joan Miró and Joan Baixas, using the original puppets, which were designed and constructed by Miró himself.

As you can probably glean from the little video snippets that I have uploaded for you, it was a pretty bizarre experience. I am sure the kiddies in the crowd loved the funny puppets simulating anal intercourse (that's right Donald, real art!). It was a little like the Muppets on acid. I suppose if Kermit and Fozzie were going to rip into General Franco they would resort to sodomising each other and singing gleefully.



That bum sex is used as a symbol of corrupt political decadence is hard to hold against this little production because everyone is so ebullient (and they handed out presents). The singing and dancing was infectious and it wasn't difficult to imagine yourself in some Catalonian plaza watching the carnivalesque ribbing. I imagine back then it was a welcome frivolity.

We didn't get through the entire collection today but we did have a look at some Pollocks and Miró's, some Dalí's and a Magritte or two.



Modern art. It is all very fractured. There is a lot that I like and a lot I am not too keen on. The works of the Tate Modern are so diverse that, while there is always something interesting to get lost in, there is a lot for which I feel no compunction walking on by. We didn't get as far as the Pop Art gallery, which I was particularly looking forward to (and was wearing my tomato soup t-shirt for) but entry is free so there is always tomorrow.

My favourite work of the day was a spontaneous piece produced by a kid on the floor of the turbine hall. Ah, school holidays and modern art galleries: a match made in heaven.

Tags: art, surrealism, puppetry, Miró