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Andreu Alfaro's 'The Door to the Universe' stands before the Bancaja Foundation
Valencian sculptor Andreu Alfaro once again occupies a prominent place in Valencia's urban landscape. Starting today, his work , "The Gate of the Universe," stands in Plaza de Tetuán, opposite the Bancaja Foundation Art Center, which promoted the installation of this piece in the public space.
A work created in 1983 by a key 20th-century artist has been donated by the artist's family for public exhibition at this Valencia location. With this proposal, the Bancaja Foundation seeks to add a new cultural landmark to Valencia, thanks to Andreu Alfaro, one of the great names in 20th-century European sculpture. His work, marked by a unique artistic personality, has achieved widespread international recognition and has established him as a key figure in contemporary sculpture.
Andreu Alfaro conceived Ona for Barcelona, a public sculpture inaugurated in 2003 on Passeig de Colom, very close to the port, which over time has become one of the city's recognizable symbols. Made of stainless steel, its undulating profile evokes the movement of the sea—"ona" means wave in Catalan—and interacts with its surroundings through a play of light that varies between day and night. Now, with the installation of The Door to the Universe in Valencia, Alfaro's ability to combine monumentality and simplicity is reaffirmed, integrating his works into open urban spaces and offering citizens the experience of living with them in their daily lives.
Andreu Alfaro's imposing creation, conceived in 1983, stands almost six meters tall and now gleaming in the heart of Valencia. Thanks to a donation from the artist's family to the Bancaja Foundation, the sculpture will remain in Plaza de Tetuán, a space to which Alfaro returns after having been present in 2018 with Homage to Plato (1970). That installation, part of the retrospective Alfaro. Laboratory of Sculptural Forms —curated by Tomàs Llorens Serra and Boye Llorens Peters and composed of nearly ninety pieces—celebrated the creative vastness of a sculptor who knew how to give form to light, space, and collective memory.
