If you globe-trotting around Spain in February 2011, do make it a point to stop over at the Galería Il·lacions which has the distinction of being Barcelona’s first design gallery. Aiming to be an accessible platform for national and international designers and creators, the gallery will be a milestone in the design history of Barcelona. Xavier Franquesa, one of the founding partners of Il·lacions wanted to capitalize on the design culture of Barcelona and hence decided to build a gallery on similar lines that are found in Paris, Prague and London. The design gallery will debut with a with a steel furniture by MSB Miquel Subiràs show that will mesh the principles of design and sculpture. The gallery, which is just across the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Barcelona (MACBA), FAD and Centro de Cultura Contemporánea (CCCB) is itself a visual treat since it highlights include century old hydraulic tiles, layers of wallpaper, exhibiting pencil drawn graffiti and restored two steel-cast columns.
Says Xavier Franquesa:
“Barcelona is one of the main European capitals of design. If London has four galleries devoted to it, Paris has three or four, Praga has one… ¿why don’t we have one? From the moment a Barcelonian wakes up to the point where he goes to bed, he or she will always be surrounded by design. It’s in the street furniture, in the shops, in the clothes created by the riskiest, most brave designers, in its publishing industry, in museums… There’s an undergrowth, a series of layers, of deposited sediments which time after time have been leaving their imprint on the history of the city. Il·lacions’s mission is to take care of that imprint.”