Day 15 Barcelona: Museum of Contemporary Art, Palau de Musica, & Cathedral

Today was a great arts day.  We started at the Museu D'Art Contemporani de Barcelona.  There were some really thought provoking exhibits there.  The first was an annotated history of the Arab Image Foundation.

The first room of the exhibit was on photographs and vehicles.  There were a huge number of photos from Lebanon.  These photos explored modernity infiltrating the lives of people in the Arab world.  The photos were so western/class oriented it was a bit shocking, exposing my own stereotypes.

A second exhibit was called  Forensic Architecture Towards an Investigative Aesthetics.  It brings two fields together, using  photography and the arts to present evidence in the context of armed conflict, political struggles, and environmental violence.  There was so much here that I want to read more about.  I think the inquiry methods presented could be useful to literacy research.

Here's a taste of one of their many methods.

We then took a tour of the Palau de la Musica Catalana.  Both the exterior and interior were astounding.  The modernista architect was Lluis Domenech i Montaner.  Here's the space.

The exterior.

Every detail is so intricate.

The stage is cover with muses.

On the way back we stopped by the Barcelona Cathedral.  It was impressive.

There was a nice courtyard with lots of gargoyles.

And a flock of live critters.