Many grand scale works of art by major artists can still be enjoyed, free of charge, you just need to know where to look. Some of them remain as they were, some of them have been damaged and sometimes they are in unexpected areas of the city. The artists may surprise you; they did me.
Eduardo Chillida, the Basque sculptor whose powerful works grace many highly visible locations in Spain and abroad, created an amazing suspended claw that hangs from cables over a lake in the Parc de la Creueta del Coll and weighs over 50 tons. His Elogi de l’aigua (Eulogy to Water) was made in the former quarry in 1987 and simultaneously encloses and exposes space, speaks of the relationship between water and air and defines both gravity and levity. It is a wonder to behold.
The park’s artistic credentials continue with Ellsworth Kelly’s monolithic l’Escultura (Totem), which soars 10 metres into the air. The upright plinth made by the American minimalist painter and sculptor in 1987 can be found not far from the Chillida installation. Elsewhere in the city, an even taller, stainless steel version of Totem, from the same year, stands at the north end of the Santiago Calatrava bridge in Clot.
One of the most playful examples of sculpture commissioned is by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen who created Mistos (Matches 1991-1992). The mammoth book of matches, both active and spent, is installed at the corner of Avinguda del Cardenal Vidal i Barraquer and Carrer del Pare Mariana. Why matches? Why not? The Dutch couple, who were known for their enormous clothespegs and other household objects, wanted to create something that was symbolic of fire but concealed within a simple and everyday object.
The most recognisable work of Joan Brossa, who uses letters as sculptures, is probably the aptly named Barcino installation (1995) in the Plaça Nova, outside the Cathedral, near the ruins of the medieval city wall. Barcino is the Roman appellation for Barcelona. There is also his more remote alphabetical installation Poema visual transitable en tres partes, (Transitable visual poem in three parts 1984), hidden away at the Velòdrom de la Vall d’Hebron.
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