The history of rock can be reviewed through songs, posters, albums, and concerts. Now, a new museum in Barcelona proposes to do so in an even more palpable and electric way: through an extensive collection of electric guitars that have passed through the hands of great internationally renowned stars. From number 16 Portaferrissa street, Guitar Legends Hall invites visitors to discover the 20th century through rock in an interactive way, with a collection that spans from the seed of the musical genre to the present day.
Driven by music-loving collector Juan José Castellano, the museum opens this Thursday with the aim of offering a multisensory experience through an interactive and immersive proposal, featuring more than 50 guitars. All of them are from limited series or have been used by mass idols such as Bono, Bon Jovi, George Harrison, AC/DC, Kiss, Metallica, Dire Straits, Queen, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, The Cure, and Medina Azahara. With this cast of legends as protagonists, the museum will be the first in Europe to approach the history of rock in this way.
To do this, the museum invites visitors to immerse themselves in the genre through each guitar and its contribution to music history, contextualizing the unique sound and stamp of each instrument within its temporal setting. Treasuring them has not been a quick or routine task. To gather them, Castellano has traveled for two decades to multiple cities, and has incorporated them into his collection by acquiring them directly from musicians such as Kiss guitarist Paul Stanley, or by buying them from other collectors and rock enthusiasts.
The various rooms, themed to different eras of rock, feature interactive elements, such as an immersive experience in a garage and a concert with holograms of legendary artistsThe guitars will not only be able to be admired in the new museum, but visitors will be able to play some of them. And it is that, with the aim of offering an interactive experience, the museum will have spaces dedicated to experimentation, which will also program activities such as workshops and conferences.
Along these lines, its various rooms, themed to different eras of rock, feature interactive elements, such as a jukebox, a room with televisions showing 50s programs that visitors can interact with, another that transports visitors to a 60s festival with an essential Volkswagen van, an immersive experience in a garage, and the concert of concerts, with holograms of legendary artists performing iconic riffs.
And the museum is not a finished work, but will be in constant evolution: Castellano, an entrepreneur passionate about guitars since he was 13, remains immersed in a search for pieces that can broaden visitors' experience and enrich his collection. But the space goes beyond exhibiting guitars, as it aspires to explore the genre as a sociocultural movement with an impact on society.
The museum, with an exhibition proposal by Grup Transversal, will also do so through temporary exhibitions and with a regular program of performances, album presentations, workshops, conferences, and master classes. All with one goal: to establish itself as a reference point in Europe, hosting presentations by artists and products from major electric guitar manufacturers and becoming a new meeting point for the international professional music sector from the heart of Barcelona.