New York exhibits Gaudí’s architecture “alive” thanks to the metaverse

This content was published on May 05, 2022 – 18:40

05 mayo 2022 – 18:40

Sarah Yanez-Richards

New York, May 5 (EFE).- Antonio Gaudí’s Casa Batlló “occupies” the central Rockefeller Plaza in New York for a few days in a digital version that consists of a screen of more than eight and a half meters in which the building comes to life thanks to audiovisual artist Refik Anadol.

If it rains in Barcelona, ​​the “Casa Batlló: Living Architecture” projection collects atmospheric information in real time and covers the building designed by the architect Antonio Gaudí with a kind of celestial wave.

But if, on the contrary, it is a bright day, the avant-garde piece uses the 2,000 million digital molecules that cover the model of the building to paint the façade in different tones.

Another added value of this multimedia work, which will be auctioned by Christie’s as an NFT (non-expendable token) next week, is that the weather information is also translated into sounds and smells, both related to the city and to the materials that the genius Spanish used at the beginning of the 20th century to build the building.

The work is valued between one and two million dollars.

Until May 13, New Yorkers and tourists who walk through the central Rockefeller Plaza in the Big Apple will be able to see the work on a giant screen, although they will not be able to smell it or hear the sounds.

The digital reproduction of the facade of Casta Batlló “is the highest that a work of art can be in the streets of New York, according to regulations,” the artist, who was born in Turkey and now lives in Los Angeles, tells Efe. (USA.).

On May 7, Anadol will take Gaudí’s legacy “into the future” with the projection of a ‘mapping’ on the 32-meter facade of the modernist Casa Batlló in Barcelona, ​​a World Heritage Site since 2005 and one of the most iconic places in Barcelona .

It was Casa Batlló that contacted the artist to do this project. “It’s the most open-minded team I’ve ever worked with. (They) wanted to preserve history, but they were also open to innovation,” says the artist, who points out that connecting the past with the future is “really difficult.” .

Nature has always been a source of inspiration for Gaudí: the designer imitated the waves in his columns and the structures of the trees in his pillars, which is why, more than a century later, Anadol integrates data on wind, temperature and rain.

The digital artist explains that, since he is not very good at drawing in a traditional way, he uses meteorological information as if they were pigments and that it is the first time that a project allows him to combine this type of data with architecture.

“Gaudí’s façade has a lot of information, from the balconies, to the porcelain details or the metal works. So, on sunny days, the light will travel according to the location of the sun and interact with the façade”, details the creator and indicates that on humid days the “viscosity” of the digital work changes.

From Rockefeller Square, the Mexican Laura Gonzales contemplates the great projection in amazement while taking a video to send to her daughter, since a few years ago they went to Barcelona together and saw the famous house.

Gonzalez is not the only one. There are many who stop to observe the colorful work that is in constant movement.

The digital work of Casa Batlló is the only NFT in the “Christie’s Spring MarqueeWeek” auction series, which will take place between May 9 and 14 and will be part of the “21st Century Evening Sale” auction, where works will also be sold. iconic ones like Warhol’s “Marylin” and creations by Van Gogh, Monet or Basquiat. EFE

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