Exhibition in memory of Jordi Cano

Last Thursday, November 11, the exhibition A project is a journey was inaugurated, an exhibition in tribute to Jordi Cano and his career, which can be visited until February 12 in the Sala Ágora at Elisava. The title of the exhibition refers to one of his many phrases that have left their mark on his collaborators and students. Many of them attended the opening ceremony, which featured the memory of the man who for many years was the director of Elisava’s Masters in Art Direction, Advertising Design and Audiovisual Communication and Creativity. He also directed UMedia, the Multidisciplinary Resources Unit of the Universitat de Vic – Universitat Central de Catalunya (UVic-UCC) and the design and communication studio Eumo DC.

There were several speeches, which highlighted his career, but above all his human profile. Speakers included Santiago Albert, Director of Masters and Postgraduate programmes at Elisava (“today is a day of essences, not absences; and Jordi’s essence is still very present in all of us”); Javier Peña, General and Scientific Director of Elisava (“with him I learned as a colleague, as a professional and as a person”); Joan Turró, General Director of the Fundació Universitària Balmes (“he was a very intelligent and multifaceted man; he left his mark on everything he did”); and Professor Marc Aliart, who shared with Jordi Cano the direction of several Elisava programmes in recent years: “He was a mentor, a teacher and a friend. An irreplaceable person”.

Some of Jordi’s relatives also spoke, as well as the former students Diana Núñez and Ruben Cruz, members of Benana Studio and responsible for the book La semilla del cómo. Trayectos, conexiones y relatos, which complements the exhibition. The publication, edited and produced by UVic-UCC and Elisava, brings together numerous visual and written reflections by many of those who knew Jordi Cano, inspired by some of the designer’s most popular phrases.

The exhibition reviews some of Jordi Cano’s projects and creations, such as the Hourglass Method or the 4D Method: define, develop, define and direct, which Jordi designed as a methodological process to activate all the senses and think first with the feet, then with the hands, with the eyes and, finally, with the head. It also includes projects by his students, which he himself tutored, and fragments of thoughts, memories and words of homage from those who worked with him.

Jordi, designer, teacher, mentor, friend and colleague, possessed an uncommon human quality, and was one of those people who left his mark on everything he did. Elisava would not be the same without his academic and personal contribution during all these years. With this exhibition we would like to pay tribute to him.