It seemed complicated that the dozens of people who roamed between the set of eight heads in Alabaster – because of them young women and a young man – that Jaume Plensa has created for the stand of El País in Arco would be departed in time so that the entourage that the kings headed in the official inauguration on the official inauguration of the Madrid contemporary art fair could pass. Every few seconds, someone approached the artist to ask for a photo or ask him about his figures. The closest thing to a rock star, in this case of art, in an appointment of this type in which only a few experts recognize their idols or creators. With the appearance of the Casa Real Protocol team, people organized without releasing their phones and Plennsa, accompanied by Pepa Bueno, newspaper director, Juan Cantón, general director of Hurry Media, and Pilar Gil, vice president of the Board of Directors of the Poor Group, could not hide the nerves. Not for receiving Felipe and Letizia – “I know them and they know my work well,” confessed the author – but because the artist, explained to this newspaper, did not want the kings to lose the best perspective to observe the set of sculptures that he has baptized as he has baptized as Between dreams V3.0: right in front of some of his figures.
Already in that precise place, King Felipe asked Plennsa if the heads could be touched. “I have answered that they can caress or hug,” said the artist moments after visiting El País. “Although they have not done so, in the end.” What remained the creator was the symbolic hug that, in some way, had already received on other occasions from the royal family. “His daughters visited my studio recently,” said Plensa in reference to Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofia. “The kings have not asked me many questions either because we have already seen each other on other occasions. Today they have been interested in my work with the alabaster, ”the author continued.
Seventeen years after his first intervention in the stand From El País in Arco, the artist (Barcelona, 69 years old) has returned with figures, as usual, with closed eyes. One lying on the hands of another and some arranged on large rectangular blum -shaped blocks. The title, Between dreams v3.0refers to Between dreamsthe work that presented in the same space in 2008 and which consisted of a head of a Dominican immigrant called Irma, 2.35 meters, with the words “hunger”, “disease” and “insomnia” recorded on his face and surrounded 600 kilos of used shoes, in what Plensa then called “a tribute to foreigners.” As then, the artist refers directly to migratory problems through faces of different geographical origins.
The bust of that young man surrounded by women is the first great male head that Jaume Plennsa executes. Next to him, the quiet face of a girl daughter of mother Vietnamese and Catalan father. Beyond, the oval face of a Dominican girl with achinated features. And a Valencian girl, and another from Aragon, and another daughter of Catalan father and Japanese mother. A proposal in the name of diversity, crossing and miscegenation. The team has become one of the attractions of the fair. The delegation continued towards the area dedicated to the Amazon, the main project of the 44th Arc edition held from March 5 to 9. The public surrounded these figures again, to take pictures, share them and, in some way, hug women and the man of Plennsa.