It is one of the pieces designed by the Catalan artist to welcome tourists arriving to Barcelona by land, sea and air.

If you had to choose a color to define Barcelona, ​​it’d be impossible to make a decision. The city has thousands of reasons to be proud of its rainbow soul. Just look around the buildings’ facades or go through the boulevards to check it. No. You cannot color Park Güell Drac, Gràcia’s festival or Montjuïc Magic Fountain with a single color. That’d be a blunder. However, someone got to observe the city wearing a five color glasses without losing its essence. The achievement belongs to one of our best artists, Joan Miró. In the seventies, he summarized in five colors-red, yellow, white, black and blue-Barcelona’s essence. And he succeed. He really succeed.

On 1968 Barcelona was ready for the upcoming democracy. The city wanted to open up to tourism and the European vanguards. That year, Joan Miró was assigned to decorate the facade of Prat Airport Terminal 2, inaugurated two years later. Not only did he accept, but also donated three other works to welcome visitors by air, land and sea. For the second mean he thought up a sculpture for the Cervantes Park-which was never built- and for visitors arriving by the Mediterranean sea, Pla de l’Os mosaic, also known as the Miró Pavement. The fourth present was the Center d’Estudis Art Contemporani (future Joan Miró Foundation), an “open door to a future ruled by international cultural exchange”.

aeropuerto el prat
El Prat Airport at Barcelona.

 

The mosaic was unveiled on December 23rd, 1976. They say Miró wasn’t at the event and that he wouldn’t see his creation until January 14th. That day, he went for a walk through the Rambla, lending an ear to people’s reactions. Someone pointed that the tiles were badly placed. The painter replied: “You don’t know how difficult was to convince workers to place pieces in an irregular way!”.

Located on Pla de l’Os, it is composed of 6,000 tiles drawing a circular shape with an arrow inside to guide the traveler how to enter the city. The colors (again) are red, yellow, white, black and blue. Miró didn’t want his mosaic to be protected by any glass, signaled or specially treated. He only have one request: the artwork should be tough enough to deal with the nearly 78 million people crossing the Rambla every year-Many of them, unaware they’re trumpling a real Miró.

Joan miro mosaic
Joan Miró’s signature at the mosaic

 

There’s only been one occasion when Joan Miró’s piece has been viewed through other eyes, a very sad one. The truck that killed 13 people in las Ramblas terror attack on August 17th stopped over the mosaic before the driver fled on food. Next day, it was covered with flowers and messages honouring the victims. This citizen initiative has already been retired but they´ll be honoured with a commemorative plaque soon; remaining that wathever happens, Barcelona is not afraid.