Every September, Palma undergoes an institutional and spatial transformation during La Nit de l’Art, a landmark event that signals the official opening of Mallorca’s contemporary exhibition calendar. Initially pioneered in 1997 by local gallerists, this city-wide initiative decentralizes fine art by temporarily democratizing public historical monuments, private commercial spaces, and hidden architectures.

At the vanguard of this artistic intervention is the Centre Cultural La Misericòrdia. This year, the center hosts a critical collaborative presentation by the CCA Andratx, showcasing the phenomenological and experimental practice of artist Anna Belén.

The Curatorial Intervention: Materiality and Gedankenexperimente

Presented in tandem with CCA Andratx's rigorous contemporary program, the exhibition brings Anna Belén’sdeeply process-oriented painterly language into direct dialogue with the historic architecture of La Misericòrdia. Belén’s practice positions painting not as a static medium of representation, but as a living, mutating organism.

Institutional Historiography of La Misericòrdia

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The dialogue between raw elemental vulnerability and structural containment in contemporary art heavily mirrors the historic genealogy of La Misericòrdia itself. Founded by the Jesuit order in the 17th century, the expansive architectural complex originally functioned as the Casa de la Misericòrdia (House of Mercy). It operated for centuries as a centralized social welfare repository designed to institutionalize, shelter, and care for Palma’s destitute, orphan, and geriatric populations.

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Following its transition to public governance under the Consell de Mallorca in 1977, the compound was systematically repurposed from a site of carceral welfare into a stronghold of cultural preservation. The massive 19th-century expansion now contains the island's premier epistemic resources, including the Biblioteca de Cultura Artesana (Artisan Culture Library) and the official Sound and Image Archive of Mallorca.

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During La Nit de l’Art, the physical spaces of La Misericòrdia—from its monumental open-air courtyards to the subterranean Aljub (a restored 19th-century water cistern)—become an active living archive. By framing Anna Belén’s alchemical thought experiments, the venue bridges the deep, structural history of Majorcan institutional memory with cutting-edge global contemporary art.