One of the great mysteries that has yet to be solved is what the Sagrada Família will finally look like, and we will still have to wait. At the end of June, the temple's Construction Board presented the board of trustees with the three artistic proposals from Miquel Barceló, Cristina Iglesias, and Javier Marín for the Glory façade, but for now, the debate remains wide open. To the point that, as ARA has learned, the president of the Construction Board, Esteve Camps, has sent a letter to the three artists informing them that the temple needs "more time" to make a decision.

Miquel Barceló is a painter voracious with tradition. Over the years, he has updated the legacy of the great masters with material paintings that often evoke decomposing flesh. In Mapa de carn, one of the featured works in the new CaixaForum exhibition, Una força del passat; Barceló evoked Pablo Picasso's Guernica,with a scene full of "animals, bodies, eyes, and deformed creatures," as stated by the exhibition's curators, Nimfa Bisbe, director of the La Caixa contemporary art collection; and art historian Carlos Martín. The goal of the exhibition is to reveal "how art history continues to be a very fertile ground for contemporary artists," as Bisbe says. In Mapa de carn, Barceló also used repeated eyes that refer to the iconic Romanesque paintings of Sant Climent de Taüll. "Barceló does not represent only war or the spiritual, but a world seen as dismemberment, viscera, and matter. The work can be read as a brutal update of ancient images of suffering," say the curators.

Miquel Barceló's exhibitions always generate a lot of anticipation. The one dedicated to him by the Artur Ramon Art gallery starting this Friday generates even more: Barceló is one of the three artists who a few months ago presented a project for the facade of the Glory of the Sagrada Familia, along with Cristina Iglesias and Javier Marín, and the exhibition will open its doors three days after the inauguration of the tower of Jesus by Leo XIV. It is his first exhibition of unpublished work in a Barcelona gallery since 1990. It may seem like a very calculated operation, but Barceló explained this Thursday that, simply, "the moment has come and it makes sense." "I don't really like having exhibitions in a gallery, I prefer painting. There's nothing strange about that," he added after patiently posing for photographers. Previously, gallerist Artur Ramon had asked that questions be focused on the exhibition, which includes about thirty prints, and not on the "media noise" generated by a potential collaboration of Barceló with the basilica.

Miquel Barceló doesn't make many hierarchies between artistic disciplines or historical periods. He considers ceramics to be "the mother of painting," and starting this Tuesday, 58 of his ceramics will be in dialogue with 36 by Picasso and 33 archaeological pieces from the Museum of Almería in the exhibition Reflections. Picasso x BarcelóThe highlight of the exhibition in Almería is an ingenious "nativity scene-theater," as Barceló himself describes it, depicting a Nativity. He assembled it himself on Monday morning, "deconstructing" the work done by the museum team, as its director, Tania Fábrega, wryly puts it. In fact, for the past 30 years, Barceló has created a nativity scene every year with his children, using figurines he has made himself. "I brought pieces from my workshop that were fragments, unfinished works, and figurines, and we combined them with the others without identifying who made them. It's very beautiful, because often there's a Picasso bull, a small bull of mine, and a Phoenician one, and they're made with the same or similar gestures, with very similar clay, and fired just barely. One is from Pompeii two thousand years ago, another was made in Palma, and one was made by your mother," the artist explains.

Miquel Barceló's wishes have been fulfilled: the Board of Trustees of the Sagrada Família has asked him to submit an artistic proposal for the sculptures on the Gloria façade. As the basilica itself has announced, they have also asked the Basque sculptor Cristina Iglesias and the Mexican Javier Marín. The artists must submit their proposals by the end of the year. These proposals will allow the Board of Trustees to "select the artist or artists who will ultimately carry out their execution." Barceló and Marín are eminently figurative artists, while Iglesias is known for her monumental sculptures inspired by the plant world. Iglesias also has the most experience in the field of public art.