Spanish artist Okuda San Miguel arrives in Barcelona and invades the Gran Teatre del Liceu with his multicoloured, geometric shapes to mark both the start of the new season and the theatre’s 175th anniversary.
Presented a few days ago, “Meditations” is an installation that occupies the entire Saló dels Miralls, one of the most beautiful and fascinating rooms of the theatre and one of the few areas saved from the 1994 fire. Commonly translated as “hall of mirrors”, the hall measures 354 square metres and besides being characterised by huge mirrors covering all four sides, it features a frescoed ceiling depicting the God Apollo surrounded by 9 muses.
It is here, where the soul of the old Liceu has remained intact, that Okuda San Miguel has positioned the three elements of which “Meditations” is composed, creating a dialogue between past and present, ancient and contemporary.
The installation consists of “Kaos Star”, a large sculpture that dominates the centre of the room. The star is a recurring symbol in Okuda’s art, even though it is actually a compass rose which, in addition to marking the cardinal points, indicates the different paths, and therefore opportunities, that life can offer.
To complete “Meditations” we find the “soulkeepers”, or magical beings who contemplate the work and, finally, the benches that have been reinvented by the artist to allow visitors to immerse themselves in the installation and become part of it.
“I was really excited, since I’ve had the idea of doing an intervention like this for a long time now. Murakami’s exhibition at Versailles was a big inspiration, the idea of playing with the contrast between a classical environment like Versailles or the Liceo and the contemporary language.”
