la pedrera

Renowned Catalan sculptor exhibits over hundred small, medium, and large-scale pieces

Initiative includes financial incentives for businesses that promote events celebrating iconic Barcelona boulevard

'Manifesto' displays more than 200 images, paintings, documents and other works by the New York born photographer

After 11 months of restoration work, the world-famous Art-Nouveau building located on Barcelona’s Passeig de Gràcia boulevard and officially known as ‘Casa Milà’ is once again showing its unique façade. Designed by the Catalan architectural genius Antoni Gaudí, this wonderfully innovative residential house, also known as La Pedrera (The Quarry), was completed in 1910. With its undulating façade made of white stone and twisted wrought iron decorating the balconies (mostly designed by Josep Maria Jujol), the building initially shocked Barcelona’s bourgeoisie. However, after a few years it had become an iconic symbol of the Catalan capital. Nowadays, it represents perhaps the greatest masterpiece of Catalan modernism and Gaudí’s most famous building together with the Sagrada Família Basilica. 

Barcelona's Sagrada Familía Basilica and Museum and Figueres' Salvador Dalí Theatre-Museum topped Catalonia's visitor rankings with 3.18 million and 1.58 million respectively.  In total, 21,593,992 people visited Catalonia's museums and collections during last year. FC Barcelona's Museum came in third place with 1.51 million people, followed by the science museum CosmoCaixa (1.25 million) and the temporary exhibitions' centre CaixaForum Barcelona (979,000 people). The last two are owned and managed by the Catalan savings bank La Caixa. The Art-Nouveau buildings designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí La Pedrera and Casa Batlló are also among the highlights, with 973,000 and 796,000 visitors respectively. Barcelona's Picasso Museum (915,000) and the Joan Miró Foundation (911,000) are also among the most popular art centres.

The ‘Gaudí Experiència’ offers the visitor, in 9 different languages, an interactive experience, diving into the work of the Catalan genius who designed the Sagrada Família, La Pedrera, the Casa Batlló and the Parc Güell. In fact, the new museum is located next to the famous park. It shows how nature’s elements including cypress trees, water and the Montserrat Mountain inspired Gaudí.

The work of ceramist Josep Llorens Artigas is displayed in many museums around the world, such as New York’s Metropolitan. Now, a retrospective exhibition of Artigas is on show until September 2nd in La Pedrera, one of Gaudí's most emblematic buildings in Barcelona. The exhibition has over 150 works by the Catalan artist. This display is titled 'L'home del Foc' (The Fire Man).

Perajaume is one of the main Catalan artists of our time, part of a generation that is already gaining a lot of international recognition, with artist’s such as Jaume Plensa. Perajaume is known for his landscape visual poetry, expressing the excess of the current times and exhorting the return to natural roots. The exhibition is not a conventional retrospective, but instead a “programmatic proclamation”, an element of reflection on the function, the limits and the fate of art when opposed to excess.

The forecasts predict that a total of 7,000 people will visit over the six sessions at the end of August