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La Pedrera recovers its giants
The troupe, created in 1998 by Toni Mujal as a tribute to Gaudí, regains its original splendor after seven months of restoration.
Barcelona's popular culture is recovering one of its most unique troupes. The Giants of La Pedrera are returning to the streets after a thorough restoration that has sought to recover both the structure and the colors, motifs and ornamental elements that define figures born directly from the imagination of Antoni Gaudí. The result will be presented on September 13, at seven in the evening, right in front of Casa Milà.
Created in 1998 by master giant Toni Mujal, the Giants of La Pedrera were born with a clear desire: to transfer to the realm of popular culture the shapes, volumes and architectural details of one of the great symbols of Catalan modernism. King Gaudí and Queen Pedrera, the warriors Badalot and Forjat and the bigheads Trenca and Dis have since built their own identity within the Barcelona festive landscape, but also a particular way of approaching Gaudí's universe through popular art.
Coinciding with the Gaudí Year, the Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera and the Barcelona Giant Groups Coordinator have promoted the restoration of the six figures, in an intervention that has lasted seven months and is the most important they have experienced in more than two decades. The action has allowed the structures to be consolidated and elements linked to the original project to be recovered.
One of the most visible changes is the return of the stone color of the warriors Badalot and Forjat, while the costumes, jewelry and accessories of the entire troupe have been renewed. Designer Marc Udina, the stage costume team of Goretti Puente, the workshop of José María Sánchez and the Taller Lacedemon have participated in this process.
The new costumes establish an even more direct link with Casa Milà. Gaudí's organic forms, moldings, fabrics and ornamentation of both the interior and exterior spaces of the building have served as inspiration for new clothing that reinforces the relationship between the figures and the monument that gave them origin.
The restoration is not, therefore, just a conservation operation. It also represents a new reading of this festive heritage, in which architecture, design, craftsmanship and popular culture dialogue around the same figure: Antoni Gaudí. The Giants of La Pedrera thus assert themselves as a living, moving work, capable of taking the imagination of one of the great artists of Catalan modernity beyond architecture and making it part of the collective experience of the street.
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