A recent New York Times article asked: Do you like your entertainment in front of you (2-D, e.g. plays, television, paintings), around you (3-D, e.g. architecture), or inside of you (e.g. eating, music)? Pondering this question, I concluded that I best engage with the arts around and inside of me. Although I enjoy plays and paintings, I am still very conscious of the greater setting, such as the audience at plays and the lighting of art museums, so to me, the 2-D category becomes absorbed into the 3-D category.
On Tuesday, I visited La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, and nothing can compare to seeing this church in person. It's modern art meets gothic art, the talent of humans meets the creativity of nature, religion meets science. This is a church that anyone can appreciate, a church that can only be fully appreciated in person. For Antoni Gaudi, it was a lifelong obsession – he spent the last 14 years of his worklife solely dedicated to the building. Fruits and animals are abundantly represented on the exterior. The Pope was impressed enough that, two months ago, he consecrated the church as a basilica, even though the church is still under construction – construction started in 1882 and is estimated to continue until sometime between 2020 and 2040. The mathematical ratios related to various measurements could be a chapter in itself.
A common reaction to visiting an iconic site is, “I feel like I've been there before.” Sometimes, it's even anticlimactic to see a famous place for the first time. There's something magical about La Sagrada Familia – perhaps Gaudi's obsession with detail combined with the solemnity of gothic cathedrals and fused with the primary colors of early modern art– that makes a first visit there a singular experience. Therefore, the experience was not “it seems like I've met you before, but I'll always remember this moment”, but rather, “I'm leaving my preconceptions aside because the view in person is infinitely better.”
Walking around the rest of Barcelona, La Sagrada Familia feels like the centerpiece of a city that celebrates the beginning of modern art. Gaudi's works are seemingly everywhere – he took over Barcelona just like Diego Rivera took over Mexico City with his paintbrush. If it isn't made by Gaudi, chances are the architect designed the building in honor of him. The abundance of modern architecture in Barcelona has made it my most photographed city so far on the Grand Tour.
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