“The letter seems to me a beautiful metaphor for society: a single letter is nothing; but together with others it can form words, concepts; this is the power of the community.” – Jaume Plensa

The Gran Teatre del Liceu inaugurated its 2022-2023 season on Monday with the new doors, or “Constel·lacions“, the work of sculptor Jaume Plensa, enhancing the celebration of the 175th anniversary of the historic Barcelona institution.

The artist Jaume Plensa together with Salvador Alemany, president of the Fundació del Gran Teatre del Liceu

The doors (stainless steel, 4 x 4 m) are inspired by two classics of Catalan culture: the architect Antoni Gaudí, and the painter Joan Miró, with his nearby Pla de la Boqueria mosaic, as well as the close relationship with the name of one of his most original series “Constel·lacions (1939)”.

“This dialogue between the past and the future I think gives us the key to the present: the contemporary gesture in the heart of society, embracing music with the word and the voice with writing“, said the artist yesterday at the opening ceremony in Las Ramblas.

Plensa intends to vindicate the diversity of the promenade with letters of nine alphabets engraved on the railings – intermingling Arabic, Latin or Chinese – that will reflect their moving shadows on the floor of the entrance, when the doors reach the light of the lamps of the portal.

During the presentation of the doors, the Councilor for Culture, Natàlia Garriga, also expressed the importance of this work for the city: “I want to thank all the members of the Board of Trustees for accepting it so quickly, for seeing with such lucidity that this proposal would be key for the Liceu, but also for the Ramblas, Barcelona and Catalonia“. And she added that “having art within everyone’s reach means that the public can get to know and appreciate it. I am sure that these doors will awaken the love of art in many pedestrians, and in the spectators who pass through them to enjoy the opera in this important facility“.

For his part, the Deputy Mayor for Culture, Education, Science and Community of the Barcelona City Council, Jordi Martí, has emphasized above all the Liceu‘s commitment to “link with contemporary artists of the city and to do so in a total and decisive way, not just with a small gesture. Today we are opening three doors, but we will also be able to see Macbeth with stage direction by Jaume Plensa“. Martí insisted that the doors “improve the artistic environment of Las Ramblas” and thanked the artist for his “humble gesture and restraint because Constellations are integrated into the landscape and do not become an isolated work of art“.

The opening of the doors was also attended by Joan Francesc Marco, director general of the Instituto Nacional de las Artes Escénicas y la Música (INAEM) of the Ministry of Culture, who wanted to highlight the importance of this day: “As a lycee and as director general of INAEM I feel a great happiness because this work of the renowned Jaume Plensa adds even more value to the theater and the city of Barcelona“.

After the institutional speeches, the event continued with the first official opening of the doors while the Choir of the Gran Teatre del Liceu performed in Las Ramblas the Wagnerian piece “Freudig begrüß en wir die edle Halle” (Tannhäuser, act II), conducted by the choir director, Pablo Assante, and accompanied on the piano by David-Huy Nguyen-Phung. A piece from the second act of Tannhäuser that celebrates the entrance of the guests and that wants to be a symbolic and metaphorical gesture of doors that invite the public to enter and enjoy the universal language that is music.

“The alphabet represents a harmony that celebrates the great diversity of the world“, said Plensa. The president of the Liceu Foundation, Salvador Alemany, said that the sculptor’s work is “a gift that gives prestige to the Rambla and the Liceu“.

It is not the first time that the sculptor has a work near a cultural center of the city. Carmela, a four-meter face, half girl and half teenager, presides over the facade of the Palau de la Música. The artist, winner of the 2012 National Plastic Arts Award, has projected his well-known faces in other capitals such as Madrid (“Julia“) or New York (“El alma del agua“).

Plensa will maintain his relationship with the Liceu in the new season as the person in charge of the scenography of Verdi’s Macbeth, which will be premiered next February.

Technical and operating elements

As for the technical details, these doors weigh about 500 kilograms each and migrate on a single shaft that is embedded in the start of the arch just above the capital of the pilasters. The convexity of the doors does not exceed the outer plane of the pilasters and makes the minimum passage under the open sheepfold about 3 m high. One of the characteristics of the structure is that the doors do not open laterally, but have a bottom-up opening movement. In this way, in addition to the physical sculpture, a game of dialogues with spaces, reflections and optical visions of light and shadow is also sought. Thus, all those who step on the floor of the Rambles will be able to walk on this carpet of shadows of the installation itself. The work is integrated without affecting any other past element previously incorporated into the facade of Oriol Mestres of 1874 and recovered in 2019.

Excerpts from Liceu, El País and La Vanguardia (“Plensa enriquece la fachada del Gran Teatre” and “Las puertas del Liceu no se abren ni se cierran, levitan”)