CIUDADES ESPAÑOLAS: El pais / SPANISH CITIES: The Country: August 2018

The town of Figueres is located about an hour by train north of Girona. It is part of what is called the Dalí Triangle, three towns located fairly near each other that are significant in the life of Surrealist painter, Salvador Dalí. (The other two are Cadaques and Púbol.) You do not visit Girona without visiting at least Figueres, so I did not visit Girona without visiting Figueres.

Figueres...(Catalan for fig trees) is the capital of the comarca of Alt Emporada in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Girona, Spain.

Population: 45,000; 43 km (27 miles) from Girona.

The town is the birthplace of artist Salvador Dalí, and houses the Teatre-Museu Gala Salvador Dalí, a large museum designed by Dalí himself which attracts many visitors.

(Wikipedia)

"Figueres...is a pleasant little city, or large-ish town, with some fine Modernista buildings and an attractive Rambla. Although it is descended from the two Roman towns of Juncària and Figàries, and was made a Royal Vila in 1267...

At the end of the Spanish Civil War, this was the last Republican bastion in Catalunya after the fall of Barcelona, and Figueres was effectively the capital of Republican Spain for a day. (Even after the last Republicans had fled northwards to France, Figueres rather fruitlessly declared itself the capital of the independent Republic of l’Alt Empordà). The town was very badly bombed by Franco’s airforce."

(http://iberianature.com/spain_culture/catalonia/girona/ampurdan/figueres/)

STREET SCENES

Ayuntamiento (City Hall)

Col-legi D'Arquitectes de Catalunya:

The regional headquarters of the architects' association.

Cubierta Fotovoltaica

(Photovoltaic Canopy)

Cáceres, Arquitectes

2011

Finalist, the biennial European Prize for Urban Public Space, 2012

In the Plaça de Catalunya, a large pavilion equipped with photovoltaic panels provides shelter for a range of civic activities including the weekly market, gatherings and concerts. It is not the best example of civic structures like this popping up around Spain and the world, but it was interesting enough, or stood out enough, to warrant some research.

(From the European Prize's website,
https://www.publicspace.org/works/-/project/g043-photovoltaic-canopy)

"Previous state

Despite its central position, the Catalunya square used to be an underused space of scant urban value which had always played a secondary role in Figueres. In the 1990s it became even more subsidiary when an underground car park was constructed beneath it and, on it, two metal porches as additions to the weekly market in the adjoining Gra square. Only fifty metres away, this is the main locus of a lively food market that is held on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, as well as being the venue of the Bric-à-brac Fair which is held the third weekend of every month. This takes place under a nineteenth-century shelter, work of the architect Francesc Puig i Saguer and one of the most representative structures in this rainy city that is so generous with the refuge it offers in the form of its public porches.

The original Gra Square market canopy.

Aim of the intervention

In 2009 the city decided to rectify the urban malfunction of the Catalunya square by earmarking more than two million euros of its budget for the construction of a new cover. The structure was to prolong the Figueres tradition of providing shelter for public activities which, more than simply being an extension of the food market in the Gra square, would include concerts, fairs and events attracting large crowds.

These sporadic uses were to activate the zone at certain times but not to affect the continuity of the permanent public space. The project of renovation was also seen as a way of stimulating the presence of pedestrians and discouraging vehicular traffic. Moreover, the new shelter would transcend the mere function of protection from sun and rain since it was to include a surface of photovoltaic plaques, thus taking a clear stand in favour of alternative sources of energy production.

Description

With proportions almost as square as those of the earlier nearby cover, the new shelter occupies the western half of the Catalunya square, thereby freeing an esplanade halfway between it and the Gra square. It is lined by a light-permeable latticework suspended from the ceiling with which it combines to form a large shady retreat. The structure describes a simple, emphatic, prismatic volume with a ground surface of about 36 by 46 metres and seven and a half metres in height. Thanks to the shade it projects, the prism seems to float more than four metres above the paving of the square where it covers an area of almost 1,700 square metres.",,,

(From the Architects' website)

Museu De L'Empordà

"A multidisciplinary institution aimed at the research, conservation or dissemination of local and county cultural heritage."

Església de Sant Pere

13th - 15th Centuries

Primarily Gothic from the end of 14th century; Heavily damaged in 1936.

Museu del Joguet de Catalunya

(Toy museum of Catalonia)

Teatro-Museo Dalí

(Dalí Theater-Museum)

A museum masquerading as an amusement park?

Or an amusement park masquerading as a museum?

"The building that houses the museum was a theater built in 1839. In 1939, during the Spanish Civil War, it was destroyed by fire, which left only the structure of what had been a beautiful neoclassical construction. This theater had a particular meaning for Dalí, since he had exhibited his first two works there, in 1918, on the occasion of a painting exhibition....The official opening was on October 28, 1974, when the museum had not yet been finished...

Each environment, each space of the museum is a work of art, with peculiar combinations of paintings, sculptures, furniture, decorations and all kinds of curiosities. In many of the rooms the walls and ceilings are completely covered with huge murals: some are original compositions while others are extensions of his famous paintings. Dalí collaborated with the architects and with all those who worked for the museum and in particular became very close to the architect Emilio Perez Pinero, who designed the spectacular transparent latex dome that dominates the building."

(Wikipedia)

(The Entry Facade and Public Square)

Some context needed here. The Dalí Theater-Museum is the second-most visited museum in Spain (after the Prado in Madrid). Yearly attendance is over 1.2 million people. This is in a former theater that accommodated an audience, actors, and crew numbering in the hundreds. So, the crowds are funneled in at strict 20-minute intervals. The sense of bursting at the seams is not without real cause.

Once inside, well, Dalí's fame as an artist is for the outrageous and unpredictable. You certainly can see it here. Whether you want to see it at all is another question. Most of the visitors seem to enjoy the tromp l'oeil, the odd and oddly placed objects, the decorations. In other words, easily accessible art-like art, albeit served up with a pedigree. You either buy into it or you do not. With so much good art to see in Spain, it seems a bit of a shame to pay so much attention to an artist who is obviously rolling in his grave in laughter, while his heirs do the same while on their way to the bank.

Oh, I almost forgot: Dalí is actually buried here, in a crypt, more-or-less under the stage. Enough said?

(Note: This could be the result of my over-active awareness of building safety, but in my opinion the museum is a danger-zone. Dead-end corridors, convoluted stairs, inadequate exits, cross-circulation, poor signage, exhibits oddly placed, and apparently over-crowded every day. It is all about the museum's protocol and keeping the cash flowing, not about the visitors themselves. If you do go, stay aware.)

There is a driver and passenger statue/mannequin inside.

("Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea")

(Photo by others.)

At a distance of 20 meters, Gala is transformed into the portrait of Abraham Lincoln (Homage to Rothko). Dalí painted two original versions of this painting between 1974 and 1976, which are similar but not exactly the same. This is his first. They are the template for his famous lithograph, Lincoln in Dalivision) It represents a prime example of what became known as the "photomosaic" approach to art.

(See, Wikipedia; https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/illusion-chasers/dali-masterpieces-inspired-by-scientific-american/; etc.)

Experiencing culture...

Sort of...

View through a peephole.

(The Mae West Room)

View at ground level.

View from second level platform - if you are willing to stand in line for 20 minutes. I was not.

(Photo by others.)

("Palace of the Wind")

Dali's homage to the Sistine Chapel.

(Works by Antoni Pitxot)

Antoni Pitxot was a long-time friend of Dali's, director of the Dali Theatre Museum, as well as life patron and vice-president of the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation.

(Rear Facade of Museum)

(Photo by Ben Holbrook, Driftwood Journals.)

Yes, those are giant eggs on top of the walls. On the walls are castings that I have been told represent loaves of bread....They have now been given a popular name, "Pan Dali" (Dali bread), and are available at local shops. If you want to learn more about the role/roll of bread in Dali's iconography, there is (of course) an article on the subject:

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/europe/how-dali-transformed-dough-into-a-surreal-slice-of-life-139293.html