Sin is a misdeed, an offence, a complete conscious transgression of what is good. In Catalan the word is pecat, and its etymology is quite revealing: it comes from the Latin pecco (to stumble, make a mistake), which leads to the word peccatum (crime, misdemeanour or culpable action). However, throughout the history of art the term has transformed substantially to such an extent that today’s lax, hedonistic and individualistic society has liberated it and taken ownership of it.
In the seven deadly sins – which emerged in Christianity in the first doctrines for the moral education of the followers – artists from all the disciplines (painting, sculpture, literature, cinema) have found a chink from where they can draw a great constellation that expresses their alienation from our modus vivendi.
Thus, through the pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth (the seven deadly sins) we propose to highlight the commonalities and differences between the works of art that belong to different chronological eras, which are nevertheless the bearers of aesthetic, political and social thought of a period.
For the first time – thanks to a collaboration between the Ajuntament d’Olot and Fundació Vila Casas – we can draw up an itinerary (located on this occasion, appropriately, at the Museu dels Sants (museum of the saints)) to show how the guilt and redemption that burden its protagonists take on a new dimension alongside the international photographic works and Catalan sculpture from the Foundation’s art collection. Both saints and anonymous characters from the present day invite us to apply a contemporary interpretation to a legacy that, in our Christian tradition, is still relevant today. Seven deadly sins, or the magnitude of the sins, is the question we seek to unveil.
Museu dels Sants d'Olot
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