The exhibition MIRALLES. Photos & Collages is part of the MIRALLES events, promoted by the Fundació Enric Miralles with the support of the Barcelona City Council and the Generalitat de Catalunya, with the aim of paying tribute to the figure of the Catalan architect Enric Miralles in his
many facets as a creator, and of whose death marked 20 years in 2020. The curators of the MIRALLES events are Benedetta Tagliabue and Joan Roig i Duran, and also collaborating are the Miralles Tagliabue EMBT architecture studio, the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura (ETSAB) and the Col·legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya (COAC).
The exhibition explores the photographic vision and personal collage practice of Enric Miralles, revealing a poetic and intimate dimension of his creative process. Drawing inspiration from artists like David Hockney and Gordon Matta-Clark, Miralles’ photomontages aim to break the classical rules of perspective and embrace simultaneity in visual perception. The show is organized chronologically, grouping material related to site documentation, project exploration, travel observations, and personal life moments. Many of the works, including photo-collages, cut-outs, sketches, and notebooks, are presented to the public for the first time. This exhibition not only pays homage to the foundational aspects of Miralles’ design methodology but also unveils the experimental and conceptual richness embedded in his photographic and graphic language. Hosted at Santa Mònica Arts Center, the installation adapts an original design by Miralles, reinterpreted by Salvador Gilabert and EMBT. The result is a deeply engaging and insightful journey through the visual thinking of one of the most influential architects of his generation.
“The collage is a document that fixes a thought in a place in a vague, deformed and deformable way … it fixes a reality in order to work with it” – Enric Miralles, 1995
