JAUME PLENSA

The sculptor Jaume Plensa (Barcelona, 1955) is currently one of the most sought after Spanish artists on the international art scene. The intense creative activity that has marked his career since the beginning has enabled him to develop a language that is highly personal and rich in nuances. The Catalan artist made his mark at the beginning of the eighties with primitive and zoomorphic iron sculptures which immediately aroused the interest of critics and public alike. Over the years, Jaume Plensa has constantly redefined the focus of his work, experimenting with materials and elements as varied as bronze, resin, glass, light and sound. Thus his artistic language, often inspired by literary references, has adopted a sense of poetry and an interesting intellectual dimension.

His sculptures have been displayed in prestigious museums and galleries in Europe, the United States and Japan, such as the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona, the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume (Paris), the Malmö Konsthalle, Malmö (Sweden), the Henry Moore Sculpture Trust, Halifax (Great Britain), the Palacio de Velázquez-Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, in Vienna and the Kunsthalle, Mannheim (Germany), amongst others. In its permanent collection Es Baluard includes the sculpture by Jaume Plensa entitled Twins III, deposited by the “SA NOSTRA”, Caixa de Balears Collection.

A many-faceted artist, Jaume Plensa has also designed the scenography for different operas, and outstanding in this area is his collaboration with the Fura dels Baus for Mozart’s The Magic Flute, performed at the Ruhr Triennale in Germany, and the Bastille Opera in Paris. In recent years, Jaume Plensa’s increasingly international profile has grown considerably, with significant works carried out in public spaces, such as the striking montage The Crown Fountain at the Millenium Park in Chicago, the mural As One in Toronto airport, and the light sculpture Breathing in the new BBC building in London.

With his installation Jerusalem, realised ex professo for the Aljub, and curated by Marie-Claire Uberquoi, director of Es Baluard, Plensa tried to turn this singular space into a magical place, steeped in a near-mystical atmosphere. To achieve this, the Catalan artist created a kind of set by constructing a series of sculptural elements in the form of gongs, totally transforming our perception of space. This is not the first time that Jaume Plensa makes reference to a musical instrument in his works. But here, as in the case of the cymbals, the light boxes, the series of the doors, the bird houses or the men covered in letters, Plensa reinterprets some of his creations in accordance with his expressive needs.

With his work Jerusalem, Jaume Plensa invites the spectator to participate in his poetical and sensorial experience, reading extracts of the "Song of Songs" engraved on the gilded bronze, inciting one to an exaltation of life. Strolling amidst the magical shadows and the brilliant reflections of the gongs, the visitor can make them vibrate, filling the beauty of the space with ancestral sounds. Then one feels involved in a reflexive process, in which time appears to have stopped.

With this creation, Jaume Plensa brings a new significance to the Aljub, in which, as is now a common feature of his work, artistic execution is always accompanied by a desire to surpass the frontiers of reality in order to transport us into the spiritual sphere.

Location – Hall: Aljub
Production: Es Baluard Museu d'Art Modern i Contemporani de Palma; Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo (CAM-Obras Sociales)