A large seagull flies over a blue sky. Giant eggs hold colorful glasses. Colorful images evoke dishes and drinks that are part of the Mediterranean memory. At the entrance, a capgròs with giant glasses observes pedestrians passing by on the street. It is not an art gallery nor a museum. Nor is it the product of a dream or a bucolic scene lost in the middle of the countryside: all these elements are found in the center of Passeig de Gràcia. It is the new Etnia Barcelona pop-up, an ephemeral space that the company has conceived as an expression of its bond with the Catalan capital, the city that has seen it born and grow and that has often inspired its creations.
Located at number 44 of one of Barcelona's most emblematic arteries, the temporary store will be open for six months. Far from being a simple point of sale, Etnia Barcelona wanted to turn the space into an extension of its creative universe: a place where the brand's iconic glasses, full of color and personality, coexist with photographs, paintings, and artistic installations.
Although this opening represents a new step for the company, it is not Etnia Barcelona's first store in the city. The brand already has a flagship on Carrer de l'Espaseria, in El Born, the neighborhood where its history began. But this new location does represent a new way of explaining and projecting itself.
If El Born represents the company's artisanal origins, the workshops and the most creative part of the city, the Eixample symbolizes its growth and international projection. "We love El Born because it is the artistic neighborhood par excellence and connects with our more artisanal side, but we wanted to open up to the center and the international visibility that Passeig de Gràcia gives you," explains Dani Claramunt, Etnia Barcelona ambassador.
In a way, this change of neighborhood also summarizes the evolution of Etnia Barcelona itself. The brand was born from a small family business linked to the world of optics: in the 1950s, Fulgencio Ramo, grandfather of the current owner David Pellicer, founded a small artisanal frame factory. The business passed from generation to generation until, in the 1990s, Pellicer decided to go a step further and turn that family legacy into a brand with its own identity.
Their commitment was clear: to move away from traditional frames dominated by black and introduce color and a look more linked to art. This is how Etnia Barcelona was born in 2001. Today, that idea born from a family workshop has become a global brand present in more than 50 countries, with more than 15,000 points of sale and a team of more than 650 people. The company closed 2024 with a turnover of 95 million euros, consolidating this stage of international expansion, which now has a new chapter in the Eixample, one of the city's great showcases.
"This new space allows us to show our essence: to explain what we are," summarizes Claramunt. "We are art, we are Barcelona, and we are color." Three concepts that run through the entire store and also serve to understand the trajectory of a brand that has turned glasses into a form of expression.
Art
The brand's artistic vision is perceived from the first moment. The pop-up functions almost like a large installation where different languages dialogue with Etnia Barcelona's collections. The photographs by Basque photographer José Javier Serrano, artistically known as Yosigo, occupy a good part of the space with a series of images that capture everyday moments bathed in summer light. A look at everyday life also shared by Barcelona-based Adriana Eskenazi, whose paintings transform familiar scenes and objects into colorful compositions, with references to gastronomy and the Mediterranean imaginary.
On the lower floor, art director Ana Domínguez has created a specific installation for the space: a sky inhabited by a seagull and large eggs —which inevitably allude to Salvador Dalí's surrealist universe— transformed into sculptural forms that serve to display glasses. But these are not ordinary glasses. The pieces are part of Etnia House of Arts, the project with which the brand promotes contemporary artists through creative residencies. For two weeks, participants live and work with an unusual material: glasses. The project is based in the historic Chiesa dell'Abbazia della Misericordia in Venice, recovered after a long restoration process, and is part of the program linked to La Biennale.
Barcelona
The relationship with the city is one of the central pieces of Etnia Barcelona's narrative. Not only because it is part of the brand's name and its city of origin, but because Barcelona has influenced its way of understanding design and its collections. Casa Batlló, for example, inspires a line created from the colors of its emblematic roof. Santa Maria del Mar, one of the great symbols of Catalan Gothic, has also served as a reference: the brand translates the light and colors that pass through the basilica's stained glass windows into its designs. And, finally, the Avinyó collection, inspired by one of the most iconic streets in the historic center —also featured in Picasso's painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon—.
The new pop-up aims to be, in a way, a synthesis of this entire universe: an ode to Barcelona and a way to bring the brand closer to its citizens. But it is also a new example of a city that continues to transform, reinvent itself, and open new spaces. This is precisely the perspective of El Radar, the new section of The New Barcelona Post which, starting today, will weekly follow the pulse of all these novelties that transform the Catalan capital: from new restaurants to shops, hotels, cultural spaces, and other projects that expand and enrich the city's offerings.