Sociedad Estatal para la Acción Cultural Exterior

Gaudí. Exploring form
Space, geometry, structure and construction

Saló del Tinell, City History Museum. Barcelona
20.3.2002 - 2097.9.2002

Introduction of the President of Sociedad Estatal para la Acción Cultural Exterior

Antoni Gaudí is one of the most universal figures of the generations of artists who, at the turn of the 19th into the 20th century, led a genuine revolution in European culture identified with modernity as we understand it today. The great master of Catalan Modernisme is not only a passionate interpreter of tradition and a prolific source innovation, but is also probably the finest Spanish architect since Juan de Villanueva. Thanks to him, Barcelona figures alongside Vienna, Brussels, Glasgow and Milan as one of the great cities in our continent that fostered the renewal of the language of architecture with evident decisiveness and ambition. The 150th anniversary of Gaudí's birth in 1882 is therefore a singular opportunity for us to reflect on the complex ideological and formal framework of his work that eludes all conventional classification and is still capable today of arousing a diverse range of interpretations and associations. The aim of this exhibition is to help us read the creations of the master in the light of his own times, through his configuration of space, the geometry of his forms, the structure that supports them and the processes of their construction. The ideas and methods developed in the exceptional collection of his buildings erected in Barcelona and other places in Catalonia, as well as elsewhere in Spain, such as Comillas, Astorga and León, are here explained using the best materials and methods to make a complex yet fascinating message like that of Gaudí's highly individual vision understandable. This is the itinerary presented in this montage, which combines scientific rigour with an ability to inform to a high degree. The Sociedad Estatal para la Acción Cultural Exterior is therefore pleased and proud to be involved in the organisation of this exhibition, promoted by the Institut de Cultura of the Ajuntament de Barcelona to mark International Gaudí Year 2002, and through its participation hopes to achieve one of its fundamental objectives, which is to raise awareness of the finest contributions of Spanish culture and art of all times. Juan Carlos Elorza Guinea President of the Sociedad Estatal para la Acción Cultural Exterior