Constellations

“The letter seems to me a beautiful metaphor of society: a single letter is nothing; but with others it can form words, concepts; this is the power of the community.”

Jaume Plensa

The work that Jaume Plensa has created for the Gran Teatre del Liceu is a song to coexistence among the different identities that make up the world. The alphabet game used by the artist is a metaphor for the great cultural richness and diversity that surrounds us, while opening the Gran Teatre del Liceu to a new dialogue with society. The three doors are integrated and beautify the facade of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, updating it to the 21st century. Designed by one of the most universal Catalan artists, the Constellations, with their high aesthetic and reflective value, are permanently installed for current and future generations.

The structure of the work consists of three pierced keys located in the three arches of the main entrance of the theater on the Rambla, which include letters from different alphabets. The alphabet game is one of the distinguishing features of the author's work, and on the doors of the Liceu converge the Greek, Cyrillic, Indian, Hebrew, Arabic, Tamil, Chinese, Japanese, and Latin alphabets. "Starting from the Latin alphabet of my Mediterranean origin, I have been introducing different alphabets and ideograms from various backgrounds. The variety of forms among the alphabets has enriched, with their unique beauty, the metaphor of the great diversity of the world. Each alphabet is a precise portrait that summarizes and describes its cultural origin," states Jaume Plensa.

"These doors are, therefore, a song to the hope of positive globalization. It is not the standardization of alphabets, but the beauty of seeing very diverse cultures mixed but maintaining their identity". And he adds that "Constellations is the representation of the Rambla as a meeting place, where the Liceu does not look at origins or backgrounds, with music being an element that equalizes all citizens through its universal language."

As for the selected material (316L stainless steel of six millimeters thickness), it connects with the Mediterranean tradition, which is characterized by the use of humble and everyday materials in spatial installations such as earth, glass, iron, wood, clay, ceramics, etc. The sinuous shape of the letters that make up the doors establishes a perfect dialogue with the work of Joan Miró (Mosaic del Pla de l'Os), located a few meters from the Teatre de la Rambla, thus establishing a symbolic and physical union of two Catalan artists recognized worldwide.

Technical and operational elements

As for the technical details, these doors weigh around 500 kilograms each and pivot on an axis that is embedded at the start of the arch just above the capital of the pillars. The convexity of the doors does not exceed the outer plane of the pillars, and the minimum passage under the open key is about 3 meters high. One of the characteristics of the structure is that the doors do not open laterally, but have a bottom-to-top opening movement. In this way, in addition to physical sculpture, a play of dialogues with spaces, reflections, and optical visions of lights and shadows is sought. Therefore, all those who walk on the Rambla pavement will be able to walk on this carpet of shadows of the installation itself. The work is integrated without affecting any other previous element incorporated into the Oriol Mestres facade of 1874 and recovered in 2019.

The artist, Jaume Plensa, has donated the creation and design of the doors to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

The installation of the new doors of the Liceu lobby began on July 4, 2022, and was completed on September 3 of the same year. As a general rule, they will open at 9:30 a.m. and close at 10:00 p.m. if there is no event scheduled. If there is an event, they will close at the end of the function or event taking place.

As for their maintenance, they will be cleaned and polished periodically. The door's ascent and descent system is motorized with cable traction and ensures the total safety of people, similar to the theater's motorization. This motor will be checked monthly. The conservation cost, estimated to be minimum, is included in the ordinary preventive maintenance contract of the Theater. The total cost of manufacturing and installing the Liceu doors (Constellations) is estimated at 750,000 euros, of which 50% has been assumed by the ACS Foundation, 35% has been subsidized through the Department of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya within the PO FEDER 2014-2020 program of operations in the performing arts and musical equipment field. The remaining 15% has been covered by the ordinary annual investment budget of the Theater.