The space currently occupied by the forgotten Imax Port Vell is shaping up to be the future location of the second headquarters of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, a goal that the cultural institution has been pursuing for some time. This new headquarters will become a versatile space open to the public, and is intended to expand the Liceu's current facilities on La Rambla, as well as open the door to working in a network with other professionals and actors in the performing arts and music fields.
The second headquarters of the cultural institution, the Liceu Mar, will serve to develop a New Creation Opera Center, an entity that will promote the opera of the future from all its areas, such as composition, dramaturgy, or stage direction. It is also intended to complement the educational activity of the theater itself and the programming of the Petit Liceu, and to establish a stable dance season and program baroque or chamber operas.
The executive commission of the Liceu, chaired by Salvador Alemany and composed of the Barcelona City Council, the Provincial Council, the Generalitat, and the Government, has agreed to continue working on the necessary technical and economic studies to evaluate the viability of the project and to be able to present the preliminary project for the new facility in Port Vell, where the Port de Barcelona will have to demolish the old 3D cinema, abandoned since 2014. It is expected that the roadmap to be followed will be presented by April.
The initiative announced this Wednesday is the result of previous conversations between the Port de Barcelona, the City Council, and the Liceu, a matter that may pave the way to guarantee its success, unlike the last proposal that was put on the table to locate a headquarters of the cultural institution on the seafront. In May of last year, the possibility of promoting "a great cultural hub of the sea" by the Port, the Liceu, and the Hermitage in the Nova Bocana was raised. This project was intended to solve the theater's need for complementary spaces to develop artistic, social, and training activities, according to the promoters. The proposal should have also helped to convince the city council to approve the arrival of this new museum in the city, but it did not. After multiple appeals, this issue is still far from being resolved.
Reurbanization of Moll Espanya
The first step to develop the new Liceu headquarters will be the demolition of the Imax, unused for almost eight years. Inaugurated in 1995 by Pasqual Maragall, who defined it as one of the symbols of 21st century Barcelona, it was the first cinema in all of Spain to incorporate state-of-the-art technology that allowed viewing films and documentaries in 3D. The crisis suffered by the sector, the lack of public, and the technological obsolescence of the facilities were the causes that led to its closure.
Throughout these years, studies have been conducted on how to re-fill this large building, designed by architects Enric Sòria and Jordi Garcés, with different uses, with proposals such as its conversion into a show theater or using it to expand the Aquàrium. None of them prospered and the Port approved its demolition in February 2020, "due to the lack of activity in the concession and the evident situation of abandonment of the facilities" and with the aim of guaranteeing safety. In fact, a month earlier, a fire had occurred and a person who was living in its interior was injured.
The demolition of the Imax will be one of the phases of the reurbanization that the Port has long planned for Moll Espanya, where the Maremagnum and the Aquàrium are also located. This reform will include the remodeling of the shopping center and the demolition of the Maremagnum cinemas, also closed for years. Managed by the Cinesa chain, they were one of the first multiplexes installed in the city and were inaugurated in 1995, like the Imax. The loss of spectators and the need for reforms were the reasons Cinesa justified for closing them in 2015.