The Digital Arts line of the Human Environment Research (HER) research group of La Salle Campus Barcelona, a founding member of the Universitat Ramon Llull, is leading the project El Despertar de l’Aurora. Reconstrucció digital d’un ensomni noucentista, a 3D reconstruction of The Awakening of the Aurora, a sculptural monument in the Jardinets de Gràcia that was removed two years after part of it was installed in 1929.
The project is presented in an exhibition hosted by the Palau Robert in Barcelona between February 5 and March 30, which is curated by Jorge Egea and Gloria Fernández, professors and researchers at La Salle-URL, and has the collaboration of the Directorate General of Dissemination of the Generalitat de Catalunya. The exhibition narrates – and reconstructs in 3D – an unusual and paradoxical story, of great heritage, historical and artistic interest. Due to its location and context, it is particularly appropriate that it be hosted by the Palau Robert, as this is the first time that the magnitude of the monument, which, if completed, would have covered a distance of 194 metres along the entire Jardinets de Gràcia area, is being analysed. The curator, professor and researcher at La Salle-URL, Jorge Egea, explains: “Thanks to 3D techniques and the possibility of taking a virtual visit, we can understand how the sculptor Borrell Nicolau had conceived this monument”.
In 1927, the sculptor Joan Borrell i Nicolau and the architect Nicolau Maria Rubió i Tudurí were commissioned by the Barcelona City Council to design a monumental complex for the 1929 Universal Exhibition. Barcelona celebrated this progress with fountains and images that reflected the city’s renewal and modernity. Thus was born a dream of noucentista aesthetics in which the Greek Olympus was present in the Jardinets de Gràcia, a link between the end of Avinguda Diagonal and the beginning of the village of Gràcia, annexed to Barcelona in 1897.
The set, made up of eighteen sculptures, was never fully installed. After being inaugurated on July 13, 1929 by General Miguel Primo de Rivera, it was dismantled in 1931. Why did such an imposing work have such a short real life? Aesthetic, political and social reasons were responsible for this loss. As the curator, professor and researcher at La Salle-URL, Gloria Fernández, explains: “It is important to know the history of this monument because it is rooted in the history of the city from both an artistic and social and economic point of view, therefore it is telling us about what was happening in Barcelona around 1929”.
However, the monument continues to arouse interest. 3D technology facilitates the reconstruction of the monument and, for the first time, a global vision of this complex and lavish monument is presented, recovering the memory of the transformation of the public space. The 3D reconstruction process allows us to know the monument from a new perspective and bring the results obtained within the framework of university research closer to the public. In the words of the Director of Research and Innovation at La Salle-URL, Rosa Ma. Alsina: “This project demonstrates the importance of conducting purposeful research, which uses the technological resources of the campus and can transfer knowledge to society with exhibitions as didactic and understandable as The Awakening of the Aurora.”
