4/19 (sabado)

The Vietnamese restaurant that I found because I got lost is as delicious as I thought. It feels a little expensive, but it’s probably not when you consider what it takes to get the ingredients. I’ll probably come back.

I went to visit one of Gaudi’s early works, the Palau G・ll, again. I did not go in. My perspective of it changed slightly after staring at it from the outside for a while.

It wasn’t just the desire of a young Gaudi to display his asthetic. But also the need to fulfill his charge to the local noble Guell, who had chosen him as the architect. I’m sure he felt a responsibility to not bring Guell any embarassment. I think that’s why it became something infused with such an abundance of effort.

More, more, more. It’s more then enough to awe people, but it never lessens off, which makes it tiring. I doubt that my personal opinion of it will change…

It’s been cloudy since the morning.

I plan to go Parc Guell and have another nice long look at it. But it’s Easter weekend and I hope that it isn’t too crowded.

I pant my way up a 25 degree slope from the subway station towards Parc Guell.

There are escalators here and there, but I don’t use them, and climb up the hill or use stairs instead.

The beutiful greenery growing along the way stopped me..

This is the most beautiful sight here.

People breathlessly climb the hill.

Where are we all going, not even bothering to pay attention to the green beneath our feet?

There are cacti growing by the park entrance when I get there.

I don’t know if it’s to preserve memories or what, but there are many names mercilessly carved into the cacti.

Parc Guell originally started as a 60 (I think) lot housing development. But there were no buyers, and so it was sold to the city and became a park.

I came with the aim to draw a lot of sketches, but I end up just situating myself in that space and letting myself be immersed in it.

I try to wipe the tourists from my consciousness and imagine what Gauidi was thinking when he created this space. A regular, everyday space 100 years ago without the billboards, souvenir stands and nature motif enhancing palm trees.

It’s a residential area on top of a small high hill with an open space, a covered walkway and a market. Unknown people travel and talk along the busy walkway, children run around the open space, watched by seniors smoking and resting on the winding tiled benches. Gaudi and Guell are off in a corner of the scene. That’s what I imagine.

I’m brought back to the present day Parc Guell.

It is busy with people from various places and countries, all taking pictures to memorialize their venture away from everyday life.

But even so, people are smiling, children who could care less about Gaudi are running around with voices raised in glee, and couples are kissing (well, that happens everywhere).

This space brings out a happy time.

That’s probably what an architect’s job is for.

What can’t be argued with is that Gaudi’s architecture draws visitors from all over the world and contributes to Barcelon’s economic growth every year.

What would Gaudi think if he came down from heaven today, and looked upon his works — the Sagrada Familia, Casa Batllo etc — turned into tourist locations? Would he be angry that they weren’t being used as he intended, or would he be happy that they were contributing to their communities in various ways?

Probably the former if you subscribe to the image of him as a difficult artist that had surpassed the need for worldly things.

But I think that he might actually be the latter.

70 push-ups. 40 sit-ups.

Takehiko Inoue