YOU CANNOT SAY YOU KNOW BARCELONA WELL UNTIL YOU HAVE VISITED THE FUNDACIÓ MIRÓ. THIS ART CENTRE IS NOT ONLY AN ENCLAVE ON MONTJUÏC FROM WHERE YOU CAN ENJOY AN EXCELLENT PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE CITY, COMPLETE WITH TIBIDABO IN THE BACKGROUND. NOR IS IT JUST A MUSEUM WITH A PERMANENT EXHIBITION OF WORKS OF ONE OF THE MOST EXCEPTIONAL ARTISTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY. FUNDACIÓ MIRÓ, THE WORK OF ARCHITECT JOSEP LLUÍS SERT, IS THE SYNTHESIS OF HOW THE CONTENTS, THE STRUCTURE HOUSING THEM AND THE FUNCTION THEY PERFORM CAN BE PERFECTLY BALANCED.

A Favoured Site
It is no mystery how this happened. The idea for the Fundació Miró came into being as a result of the enthusiasm of Miró himself. After attending the opening of a Miró exhibition in 1968, at the Saint Paul de Vance Maeght Fundation, Sert and the artistic promoter Joan Prats began to work with Miró on the future project for Barcelona. No sooner said than done. Sert, dean of architecture at Harvard University, contributed the generosity of his work; the Barcelona City Hall assigned the plot of land and Miró handed over his own work on condition that his foundation would not become a mausoleum, but an open space for creative investigation. Thus the so-called Centre d’Estudis d’Art Contemporani (Centre of Contemporary Art Studies) was born, opening on June 10th 1975. The place has many appealing features and everyone who visits it must discover their own bond with a space that links all the rooms with the magic of light, a feature skilfully included by Sert in the architecture. Direct light on the terraces invites visitors to look out over the city. Diffused light is used in the exhibition rooms while compressed light features in the basements. Located in the basement is Espai 13, a space exclusively devoted to presenting work by young artists. Since its opening, the building has been remodelled twice, both times by Jaume Freixa, a disciple of Sert’s. The first of the remodellings was carried out in 1988 and involved increasing the area dedicated to exhibitions by fifty percent. The latest reform, in 2001, is called Sala K in honour of the Japanese collector Kazumasa Katsuta, who gave the Foundation most of the Mirós now on display in the new rooms.