There is more art in La Rambla than meets the eye, you just need to look things in a different way. This is the case of the Joan Brossa mask.
There is a type of art in La Rambla that, if you don’t pay attention, it can go unnoticed. Barcelona is that city where the most interesting details are hidden in the most unsuspected spots. It happens with the dragons that are hidden in the monuments, the unknown works of Gaudà and poet and artist Joan Brossa mask.
In La Rambla dels Estudis, at the height of Portaferrissa street, you’ll find this golden mask. An inscription indicates that it is dedicated to La Rambla. It was designed by Joan Brossa (1919-1998), one of the most important Catalan artists of our time. The artist had a special relationship with theater. When the living statues of La Rambla won the FAD Sebastià Gasch award for parateatral arts in 1991 (the Oscar awards of scenic arts in Spain) , he dedicated one of his works to them. Exactly, this is the mask we’re talking about.
Behind Joan Brossa’s prints
The Brossa mask is not the only artwork that the writer left in Ciutat Vella. In the square of the Cathedral of Barcelona, ​​Seven bronze letters form the word Barcino. That is to say, the word used by Romans to call the city of Barcelona. Each of them has a special form, especially the ‘B’ for being the initial of his surname. On the other hand, in the Passeig de Sant Joan, some Gymnastic Letters decorate the shop window of the legendary magic shop El Ingenio.
Art in La Rambla is expressed in a thousand ways, not only visual. Federico GarcÃa Lorca or Josep Pla have dedicated beautiful words, Joan Miró embellished the floor with a mosaic that has become a symbol and the artists give their own personality to the walk. The Brossa mask is just one example of how, as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry used to say in The Little Prince, “the essential is invisible to the eyes”.