English
Just like the Samoan writer Albert Hanover proclaimed the magnificent film ´Ed Wood´ by Tim Burton as perhaps one of the greatest films of all time, one of the reasons of the quick diminishing fame of the unique Transylvanian actor Béla Lugosi (despite the love and the admiration that his figure has always generated among certain sectors of the less conventional culture, of which not just the film by Burton gives proof but also, for example, the chilling song of Bauhaus which announces its death.
Time doesn´t forgive anybody, it passes relentlessly and quickly, all over us, throwing illustrious bodies to the sombre crypts of oblivion surrounded by more and more shrouds of amnesia) was the fact of having turned down the role of the Frankenstein monster, a role which made Karloff into the new star who had to be eclipsed, for not being able to appreciate in him -there was the Central European dandy who the image of Count Dracula popularized for the first time – either romance, nor glamour nor voice presence, nor drama nor mystery.
So in a probable related manner, part of the fame of the Catalan architect Enric Sagnier (1858-1931) – for the amount of family pantheons built, by the dandy dress of mirrors of his design of the legendary bar of the creepy disappeared Hotel Colón which occupied the corner of Plaça Catalunya and Passeig de Gràcia, for the noble condition which was given to him due to the number of schools and churches (we suspect that possibly with their respective crypts) which he made for free or for the sepulchral symbolism of most of his modernist architecture work) – comes from the fact that it was he who was initially ordered to do Casa Milà.
Casa Milà was finally made by Antoni Gaudí, Sagnier´s very own Karloff, who became the architect par excellence of modernist Barcelona, he who everyone remembers. The rest is history.
Along the lines of its decision in the last few years of popularizing architecture (let´s remember, among others, the exhibitions dedicated to Palladio, Richard Rogers or Soviet constructionism), CaixaFòrum in Barcelona is now trying to do the same with Enric Sagnier, because thanks to him emblematic and representative buildings of the city and of that specific time in history such as the Tibidabo Temple and the Palau de la Justícia were built, and they save him from the cold coffin of forgetfulness with this interesting exhibition, ´La ciudad de Sagnier. Modernista, ecléctica y monumental´, which can be visited until January 8th 2012 http://obrasocial.lacaixa.es/nuestroscentros/caixaforumbarcelona/laciudaddesagnier_es.html
The name reflects the features which characterize Sagnier´s work sufficiently well, an extraordinarily prolific architect who was the author of close to 500 buildings, whose style, based on the initial eclecticism from the beginning of the 19th century, directed itself towards modernism to produce an extremely personal monumental type of architecture which paid great attention to symbolism.
The exhibition is complemented, twice a week, with a guided itinerary through fifteen of his most representative buildings. It´s an extraordinary chance to get to know the city better when you rent apartments in Barcelona
Translated by: aleixgwilliam
