Barcelona, October 5-7, 2016
THE GAUDI RESEARCH INSTITUTE & UNIVERSITY of BARCELONA
250 participants
UB and Gaudí Research Institute organise the Gaudí 2nd World Congress
This Wednesday October 5, the conferences for the Gaudí Second World Congress were started. The congress is organized by the University of Barcelona and The Gaudí Research Institute (TGRI). The scientific gathering, which lasts until October 7, takes place at the Historical Building of the University and gathers fifty international prestigious speakers from thirty countries, who will talk about research regarding the works and figure of the architect -particularly on Park Güell and Torre Bellesguard-, as well as his projection in different fields of knowledge. There were up to 250 people who registered as attendants in this congress.
In the press conference of the ceremony, the vice-rector of Institutional Relations and Culture of the University of Barcelona, Lourdes Cirlot, highlighted that Gaudí was a model of inter-disciplinarity and knew how to “find connections between pure sciences and humanities”. Afterwards, she commented on a specific side of Gaudí: the work of the architecct seen by contemporary artists, especially from those in Surrealism. Cirlot commented on the research of her father, the art critic Eduardo Cirlot, and his pioneer works on Gaudí’s work, which will be the topic of the professor’s speech in the congress.
Afterwards, the co-founder of TGRI, Pere Jordi Figuerola, commented on the multiple researches in different fields that have been carried out thanks to the great promotion of the Gaudí First World Congress in 2014. He also reminded about the Antoni Gaudí UB Chair and the projects they lead, particularly the ones aimed at creating a Gaudipedia, as well as basic studies, with the participation of international experts from different fields to get all works by Gaudí be declared World Heritage Site. Regarding the conferences of the congress that took place in June in Shanghai, there was a reminder of the interest for the knowledge transfer Gaudí still offers nowadays. Particularly, Figuerola told that Gaudí’s work is very interesting in China because “it is very innovative” and because of its importance on knowledge transfer.
The American historian Conrad Kent also participated in the press conference and gave some research data on Park Gúell: “one of the most interesting public spaces of the 20th century”. He highlighted it is “a pity” that some parts of the park have been destroyed and -due to a lack of maintenance- Gaudís work has lost some “delicacy”. “Catalonia should do more to protect what they have from Gaudí”, he said. (From: UB)