Caged in the rain
06/10/2010
Taking a free stroll along Barceloneta’s Passeig Marítim, you might miss seeing one of the artworks in the exhibition Configuracions urbanes [Urban Configurations], unless you are guided where to look. It is Una habitació on sempre plou [A Room Where It Is Always Raining, 1992] by Madrid artist, Juan Muñoz.
Maybe the partial seclusion offered by a surrounding grove of five trees is the reason the installation—one of Barcelona’s most striking artworks—is surprisingly unknown, despite being bang in the middle of a square that functions as the main gateway onto the beach. Five figures inhabit a double-arched aviary-like structure in leafy shade. The torso of each appears to grow from and remain captive to a heavy metal ball. Only details of clothing—conservative, casual, neat, even sumptuous—differentiate their anonymous yet virtually identical forms. However, despite their strong sense of group, they are curiously, almost wilfully blind to each other. The figures emanate conscious distancing—as if expending enormous amounts of energy to avoid seeing the bars of their cell, or their fellow inmates.
This concurrent unity and disparity is evocative of a group of political prisoners separated by ideological differences. Their gazes never quite connect with any point, either outward, or with each other. Apparently the work was meant to include water continually falling into the cage. However, the artist died before this could be implemented.
At around the time he produced this piece, Muñoz was beginning to work with “narrative” installations, using figures only slightly smaller than life-size, engaged in interaction. His installations invite viewers in, to interact, even to form part of them in a discreet manner.
In addition to the plastic arts, Muñoz was interested in atmospheric sound pieces, such as the BBC Radio 3 commission he created in collaboration with British composer Gavin Bryars, A Man in a Room, Gambling [1992]. He won the National Spanish Prize for Plastic Arts in 2000, but died of a heart attack in Ibiza just one year later, aged 48. At that time an exhibition of his was being shown at London’s Tate Gallery. His work can be found in the Museo National Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, in Madrid, as well as other Spanish and international collections.
Una habitació on sempre plou [A Room Where It Is Always Raining] by Juan Muñoz, 1992. Plaça del Mar, Barceloneta.
