Gaudí Year: Catalonia to commemorate centenary of architect's death

'God's architect,' as Antoni Gaudí is known, passed away in 1926. A century on, Catalonia is commemorating one of its most genius minds with a year-long program of activities, celebrating his life and legacy. 

Known as the 'Gaudí Year,' the activities got underway officially last November, but this week, officials presented a spate of new activities that will be held throughout the year as part of the program, which has 'The Hidden Order' as its slogan. 

Among others, 2026 will see an immersive exhibition on a Gaudí work that never came into being, routes and tours on some of the architect's lesser-known work, and a projection mapping on the façade of Casa Batlló. 

Galdric Santana Roma, director of the Gaudí faculty at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, is the curator of the commemoration events, and he told Catalan News that "everyone knows who Gaudí is, but they don't know him in depth."

The focus of the commemorative events is to explain the "mystical" figure of Gaudí in a universal way, bringing him closer to especially young people 100 years on from his death.

Organizers want to explain the scientific dimension behind Gaudí's works through the commemorative events. The architect is approached "with scientific rigor, taking into account that Gaudí's work is the result of applying science to art."

Likewise, another objective is to explore to interrelationship of Gaudí's works, as "until now they have been studied and explained individually."

Activities

One of the exhibitions, called 'The Gaudí Code', is a new-generation immersive exhibition produced by Mediapro Xperiences and curated by Galdric Santana, which fuses art and technology to let visitors discover the creative universe and the most unknown facet of Gaudí.

The exhibition recreates, based on previously unpublished research, an unbuilt work by Gaudí.

Through virtual and augmented reality technologies, the experience reveals the technical and artistic perspective of the world's most revered architect.

This will be just one of four exhibitions put on this year in the framework of the commemoration. 

Another will feature unpublished content with the original documents.

Another exhibition will be held at the Museum of Music, examining Gaudí's work in acoustics and music.

Finally, another conventional exhibition will open first in Korea before moving to Japan, to explore the figure of Antoni Gaudí. 

In the spring, a guided tour titled 'The Unknown Gaudí' will be launched, with the aim of shedding light on some lesser-known works, including the Güell Pavillions (1884-1887), the Teresianes school (1888-1889), and the Bellesguard Tower (1900-1909), all in Barcelona.

Another outstanding activity is at Casa Batlló, which will host a projection mapping on its facade created by United Visual Artists, entitled 'Hidden order'.

The iconic façade will host a monumental audiovisual work on January 31 and February 1. A contemporary art exhibition hall will also be inaugurated on the second floor of the building.

There will also be an academic congress held from October 22-25.