A single ecstasy: Material intimacy in Miquel Barceló's ceramics in the Cathedral of Palma de Majorca.

This article analyzes Miquel Barceló's ceramic intervention in the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament within Palma de Majorca's Cathedral, using Taoist philosophy to explore the artist's intimate, physical engagement with clay as a material. It highlights how Barceló's work embodies Taoist concepts such as tzu-jan (spontaneity) and wu-wei (non-making), emphasizing a unity between human body and nature that contrasts with Western dualisms separating self and world. Barceló's large-scale clay mural, inspired by a biblical narrative, reveals traces of his bodily interaction and embraces the natural cracking and shaping of the material, reflecting Taoism's view of art as a natural, relational process rather than a purely human imposition. The article further discusses parallels between creation, sexuality, and violence as interconnected physical experiences, underscoring the "plastic equivalence" between human flesh and clay bodies in Barceló's practice.