Sónar, which already has a great capacity for impact, has teamed up with the mother of all events, Casa Batlló, to inaugurate this year’s edition with an immersive and sensory experience of 64 million pixels – apparently , a record – which is what the six LED screens of The Cube add up to, in the basement of Gaudí’s building. Or rather, the unprotected part of the building, the one in which he did not intervene.
Although the modern hall of the Batlló, illuminated with red and black light, wants to reproduce Gaudí’s sinuous ceilings and one of his columns, it is not the architect’s belly that people enter when they go down to the catacombs for a dose of adrenaline , immersed in Music: Response. This Wednesday, the advanced festival showed off this proposal that adds electronic music and digital art to the press. A luxurious Chemical Brothers video clip made by the creative tandem Smith
In reality, inside the Batlló cube, with the LED walls converted into geometric ones in movement of very chemical colors and human shapes that dance to the music of the Chemical Brothers, what enters is an uncontrollable desire to dance. The characteristic dolls with the look of the British duo march like an army surrounded by pop polka dots. And then a flock of birds arrives planning… In short, a five-star nightclub.
Adam Smith is a little nervous about what is a world premiere. “Immersion in Casa Batlló is a new territory, a unique space. The Chemical were there yesterday [on Tuesday] and they were happy. “It’s really the first time you can be face to face and so close to the visuals and the music.”
At his side, Marcus Lyall confesses that he grew up in a house full of architecture books and “Gaudí’s is something I fell in love with as a teenager. So coming to Barcelona, ??being here presenting what we do… is an immense privilege.”
He says it with a twinkle in his eye, that of all the tourists who have imagined their visit to the mecca of Barcelona a thousand times. And on top of that, in the Sónar bubble! By the way, the music is also new, at least the mixes. It is a reconstruction of Chemical songs that have not been seen in the shows or in the DJ sets. “We just had to offer a new impression…” says Smith.
The large group of journalists has to be divided into two or three because as a museum experience, the proposal cannot accommodate, if you want to appreciate it, more than 30 or 40 people at a time, although the ideal would be total solitude. However, as a nightclub, this density allows you to move freely. As I said, five stars.
The co-director of Sónar, Enric Palau, and the general director of Casa Batlló, Gary Gautier, give their respective explanations, happy to have reached this alliance on account of a cube whose technology makes it “a unique space in the world,” they repeat. . Its journey began three years ago, when digital artist Refik Anadol was given the possibility of transporting people to virtual worlds and parallel realities.
“Barcelona is collaboration, innovation, creativity,” says Gautier, showing off its 35 international awards and the awards for immersive proposals that they have won in their adventure to “position Casa Batlló as a global benchmark.”
Okay, okay, but… let’s dance!
