Last weekend the Festival de las Arts Lumíniques, Llum BCN, was held in Barcelona. For three nights, in various spaces in Poblenou and 22 @, a series of installations that played with light could be seen as source of artistic creationto. Those who went to Plaça de les Glòries, for example, were mesmerized by the projections that Eugènia Balcells had prepared for the Agbar tower and the facade of the Disseny Hub. Meanwhile, out of the corner of their eye, the visitor also noticed another novelty: since those days, cars can already pass through the Glòries tunnel, at least in the direction of Besòs, and the multi-colored glows were added a feeling of cosmic calm.
The news say that they had been working on the tunnel for seven years – and the ENT specialists of the residents of the area confirm it – although the feeling was that the surroundings of Glòries lived in a perpetual works loop. Now, the decrease in traffic should serve to further harmonize an impossible area. The Encants, the Disseny Hub, the Clot library, the Farinera and, as satellites, the TNC and Can Framis, turn the Glòries into one of the cultural and social poles of the city, also adding the facilities of the playground and the Gran Clariana —a space that invites exploration and, for the moment, I dare say, away from tourism.
In the middle of this constellation is the Museum of Design, also inaugurated seven years ago. Since then, he has scheduled activities and exhibitions, thus shaping a discourse on the leadership that Barcelona often had in the tradition of decorative arts, graphics or textiles. Beyond the contents, there is a detail that does not go unnoticed: the Museu del Disseny does not (yet) have an object and gift shop. I wonder if it is a declaration of intent, at a time when merchandising is one of the inevitable claims of any museum.
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This brings to mind the store of Vinçon. Perhaps it is just an unhappy coincidence that so little time passed between the opening of the Museu del Disseny, in December 2014, and the closing of Vinçon, half a year later. But perhaps we can also see it as a metaphor for the changes in Barcelona in the last decade. Opened in 1941 by the Amat family, Vinçon had become something of a unofficial museum of design. You went there to buy, yes, but also to be surprised by some object that you did not know you needed, or simply to touch things and be distracted. Due to its location on Passeig de Gràcia, Vinçon attracted curious tourists, but they were in the minority. I myself had taken some friends to visit: they bought gifts and I discovered the fireplace on the top floor, the splendid terrace where you could spy the rear façade of Casa Milà … All this can still be seen – even more splendidly – after the restoration carried out by the Massimo Dutti firm when it opened its store, but now it is a more exclusive place. The people of Barcelona, I would say from experience, hardly ever step on it anymore.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com