Juan José Lahuerta has been studying Antoni Gaudí for years. "I came to him by chance. In 1989, Francesco Dal Co proposed that I do a monographic book on Gaudí. I didn't know what I was getting into," he jokes. "I really liked that work: Antonio Gaudí Arquitectura, ideología y política. The MNAC exhibition is a critical review of the artist's work with a thousand items and occupies almost three thousand square meters. We started working hand in hand with the Musée d'Orsay, but there are many loans from other European museums. The pandemic stopped everything. Many art centers closed and transport and insurance have become much more expensive. Despite the difficulties, the inauguration has only been delayed by one month. It is a proposal that will cause perplexity because it includes very popular things, many postcards from the time Gaudí was alive, and delves into Gaudí's multiple context with curious pieces such as a plaster model of Rodin's Gates of Hell that comes from the Musée Rodin in Paris."
The Barcelona-Paris collaboration is a big deal. "It is very important that the exhibition has been conceived by the MNAC and the Musée d'Orsay. In Paris, they are very interested because Gaudí's first exhibition was in the French capital in 1910. But we have to take into account that the two exhibitions will be different. It is clear that in Barcelona everyone knows his work and in Paris they don't, although precisely in the Orsay they have several pieces of furniture by the artist, a corner cabinet from Casa Batlló and, in the design section, they have two mirrors from La Pedrera."
"The two stars of the exhibition will be Gaudí's Chaise Longue and Dressing Table, which will also travel to Paris from March 14 to July 17, 2022. In Barcelona, an entire room from La Pedrera that we have reconstructed for this occasion will be very surprising. Some elements from the Gaudí Chair will also be on display and we recreate the architect's workshop with many plaster pieces. In Paris there will be fewer pieces and value will be given to the comparison with Viollet-le-Duc's architecture," Lahuerta points out.
Gaudí knew how to surround himself with great masters. "One of the most brilliant collaborators was Cristóbal Cascante, who belongs to his same graduating class at the Barcelona School of Architecture. He had many people around him and worked as a team; he gave space to those he was interested in and specialized his collaborators a lot. For example, he had his disciple, the architect Juan Rubió y Bellver, solving last-minute problems. And his close collaborator Josep Maria Jujol, who was his alter ego.
The Sagrada Familia, under debate
From your point of view, how has the evolution of the Sagrada Familia been? "On the one hand, it must be acknowledged that there are people working with all their effort, but one must differentiate between Gaudí's Sagrada Familia and the rest. The development of Gaudí's work can only be understood as trial and error. There are no drawings of the Sagrada Familia; he refused to draw a definitive plan. And he did not think of the finished project. When he dies, his collaborators develop a kind of Gaudinism whose working method has nothing to do with Gaudí. For me, the Sagrada Familia as the core and heart of Barcelona's tourism exploitation gives me pause. It has become a place visited by four million people a year, there are many ambiguities."
Another controversial point is Park Güell. "The Barcelona City Council has full responsibility there. Currently, they have limited a monumental area that makes it impossible to imagine Gaudí's project. I believe the City Council should not charge admission or segregate it, but it should control the capacity."
The Gaudí Chair
"The Chair is an archive; it was not created as a cultural center. It has never had the means to organize exhibitions or seminars. When I joined, the most important thing was the collection of books, especially from the 19th century, a photographic collection of forty thousand plates, a collection of drawings that includes those from Gaudí's student period plus some by Jujol, Berenguer, and others; and a documentary collection of all kinds. Also very interesting are the account books of Bayó, who was the builder of some of Gaudí's works, in which the workers' salaries, materials... are specified. The issue of digitalization is the great challenge of the Chair. For now, only a tiny part has been digitized," says the director of the Chair.
After five years at the helm, what has changed? "I found a Chair without means or budget and focused in a direction, in my opinion, not very accurate. Now we can say that Gaudí's drawings have been restored, among many other materials. The Gaudí Chair had never been taken seriously, not even by the university itself. That hasn't improved much. Funds are still lacking. The Direcció General de Patrimoni de la Generalitat, whose current director is architect Elsa Ibar, has been providing financial aid for several years, which has allowed us to catalog, restore, and digitize a good part of the collection. And finally, now, we are starting to upload the documents to a website."