The window of a locksmith at 223 Sant Antoni Maria Claret street, in Guinardó, leaves no one indifferent. A two-meter-high Cobi built with 6,000 keys from the Olympic Village is exhibited there. The sculptor is Jordi SaurÃ, owner of the business and who in 1992 worked for the COOB in charge of reviewing and keeping the locks of the apartments that served as the residence of the athletes in perfect condition.
Saurà had to check the locks of almost 2,000 apartments and 4,000 storage rooms, he made new ones and made the necessary duplicates. In total, 70,000 keys passed through his hands.
After the Games, he took part of the surplus and started a tribute sculpture to that event that he lived with passion. She spent a year soldering the keys to build her replica of Javier Mariscal’s Cobi. His intention was to donate it for display, but by then the Olympic fever had cooled.
When he acquired the Sant Antoni Maria Claret premises in 1996, he looked at the shop window and found the solution to display it. In addition, his wife gave him a surprise by managing and getting the sculpture to be part of the Guinness Book of Records.
Initially, the Cobi was part of a larger sculpture, which also featured Petra, the mascot of the Paralympics, and a model of the Olympic Village. In total, there were 37,000 keys. In the end, he destroyed the model and the sculpture of Petra due to the large volume that the entire complex occupied and due to the lack of interest in its acquisition or donation.
Jordi Saurà does not hide his emotion when remembering that he was part of the team that changed the history of Barcelona. He has a special memory for the Paralympics. This Olympic locksmith insists that with his sculpture he was not seeking financial gain. It was more an effort to externalize all the emotions that he lived in what was his great experience.
Today, his Cobi, in the window of his store, is somehow in the public domain and therefore everyone’s heritage.
