Barcelona free art

On an unguided stroll around the port, you’re likely to come across this congruent couple by Chilean artist Lautaro Díaz, another photo favourite for those interested in the free sculpture which Barcelona beaches have to offer.
Slightly abstracted yet perfectly conveying that intense intimacy born of long trust, these figures in bronze, finished in a greenish patina, depict a pair of older lovers observing the sea.

An interesting detail is the man’s feet, almost resembling a fish’s tail. Is he a merman who has come up out of the waves to woo his earthbound lover, or are they both mer-folk, who have come out of the waves in order to watch the sunrise together? Díaz’s decision not to raise the pair onto a pedestal works well to bring them closer to their public: they radiate likeableness, encouraging a regular flow of viewers to snap a shot at their side.

Lautaro Díaz is the creator of another Barcelona sculpture, a homage to Salvador Allende, installed in plaça Salvador Allende, on 11 September 1997—to mark the 25th anniversary of the coup d’état that replaced Allende’s government with Pinochet’s bloody dictatorship. You can see an identical version of it—Allende’s head mounted on the wall—in the camp de Mart, Tarragona.

La Parella [The Couple] by Lautaro Díaz Silva, 1998. Moll de la fusta, Port Vell.