On 21 March, UIC Barcelona School of Architecture lecturer Guillem Carabí took part in the round table discussion “Jujol and Gaudí: Intervention in La Seu”, which took place at the Mallorca Cathedral. Other participants included Pilar García Cuetos, full professor of Art History at the University of Oviedo; Mercè Gambús, coordinator of the Mallorca Cathedral’s Department of Culture; and Catalina Mas, resident curator for the Cathedral. 

The round table explored the interventions undertaken by Jujol and Gaudí in various areas of the Cathedral, with particular regard for their work in the Royal Chapel, to which the architects relocated the choir and where they added light and colour to the wall at the back of the chancel and the backrests of the choir stalls. The participants used the deliberation about Jujol and Gaudí’s interventions to broach another related subject: the legitimacy of contemporary artistic interventions in sacred locations, taking as an example Miquel Barceló’s work in the Chapel of the Holy Eucharist.

According to statements by Dr Carabí, “while Jujol’s interventions have often been defined as ‘artistic’, it must be stressed that they always had an underlying architectural motive: in the case of the interventions in the Royal Chapel, Jujol and Gaudí’s objective consisted of illuminating the space and exploring the building’s communicative capacities through light and reflection, significantly changing the geometric perception of the space inside the Cathedral. This issue is linked to the shift in paradigm introduced by the avant-garde through painting”.

This round table, organised by the Mallorca Cathedral, is one of the many activities scheduled as part of Jujol Year 140, which marks the 140th anniversary of the birth of Josep Maria Jujol.  Guillem Carabí is also the director of the scientific symposia on Jujol, which are due to take place in September in Sant Joan Despí.