Having to give space too often in this Good morning In the darkest catalogue of contemporary feales, you don't know with what joy I fill it today with the colours of Joan Miró, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of the Foundation building that bears his name, in Montjuïc Park.
Rising above the crowded streets of Barcelona, at the foot of a quiet and popular promenade, Josep Lluís Sert's building has been, from day one, "the anti-monumental backdrop of sky and mountains" that the architect promised he would build for the artist.
Whenever I've had to play host to the country, I've led the tours to the Fundació Miró, because the open-air courtyards, the Catalan vaults, the exposed tiles, the terracotta paving, the accessible rooftops and the work on display said more about us than I could say about anything else. And the spell has always worked.
For those of us who still have a vivid memory of the final years of the Franco dictatorship, the mosaic at El Prat Airport and the Foundation on Montjuïc were proof that it was possible to create an original, modern, and free country with our hands, our genius, and our perseverance, just as Miró had done with his work.
In a letter to Sert, Miró wrote in 1968: "Barcelona is a city of greaterfutureAnd Catalonia is a young nation. I have great faith in these nations, full of youth, who can blaze new trails in the future world that is being prepared. It's great that we're putting in the effort." It would be great if we continued putting in the effort.
