2026 VESTIGES OF SUMMER

The Vestigis d’estiu 2026 (Vestiges of Summer 2026) cycle brings together the projects of Carles Congost and Jordi Mitjà around a shared field of tension: summer understood as a setting for memory, fiction, socialisation and symbolic decline. Far from a nostalgic or merely evocative reading, the cycle approaches summer imaginaries as a constellation of cultural forms—visual, bodily, gastronomic and affective—through which to reconsider the relationships between territory, identity and collective imaginaries.

Un dit de gel (Portrait of the Artist at Twilight in El Port de la Selva), by Carles Congost, uses cinematic language as a means of articulating a series of concepts related to the notion of summer holidays from an autobiographical perspective. Through a reflective yet ironic gaze, the project moves away from the tourist stereotype and delves into the artist’s emotional and lived experiences in relation to the surroundings and landscape of El Port de la Selva. From this connection, the work constructs an analogy between these experiences and his own position within the art world. Carles Congost’s film is an ARBAR initiative co-produced with Bòlit, Centre d’Art Contemporani.

With or Without Pyjamas is the title of Jordi Mitjà’s dinner-performance, which seeks to evoke beach bars and, at the same time, the large popular dining rooms of the 1970s through a selection of dishes conceived as a tribute to them. The proposal takes the form of a cold and festive menu with which to celebrate our own particular pijama, a Catalan dessert that came to define an era.

Now virtually absent from our tables, the pijama nevertheless retains a connection with the equally famous Peach Melba, created by Auguste Escoffier in 1893 at the Savoy Hotel in London in honour of the opera singer Nellie Melba.

In 1951, at the 7 Portes restaurant in Barcelona, Paco Parellada recreated the celebrated Peach Melba following a phonetic and linguistic misunderstanding. A group of American soldiers are said to have ordered a Peach Melba, but in the kitchen the name was understood—or interpreted—as “pijama”. This is how a dessert was supposedly born that would become widely popular in Catalonia and could not be missing from special occasions, such as those that bring us together at ARBAR every summer.

Dates of the intervention: 18 July–29 August
Opening hours: Thursday to Saturday, 6–9 pm
Venue: ARBAR Centre

Credits
Photography: courtesy of the artists
Texts: the artists
Co-production: Bòlit, Centre d’Art Contemporani de Girona

With the support of the Government of Catalonia – Department of Culture, the Girona Provincial Council, El Port de la Selva Town Council, Bòlit, Centre d’Art Contemporani de Girona, and the Institut d’Estudis Empordanesos, and with the collaboration of the Associació de Veïns de Sant Marçal de la Vall de Santa Creu and the Museu de l’Empordà.