El cap de setmana del 22 i 23 d´octubre Barcelona celebra la segona edició del 48H OPEN HOUSE BCN, el major festival d´arquitectura de gratuït de la ciutat que obre les portes de 155 edificis.

L´emblemàtica Torre de Collserola de l´arquitecte Norman Foster; el centro de creació, la Central del Circ al Fòrum; el recentment rehabilitat Hotel Espanya o una visita comentada al cementiri de Montjuïc són algunes de les noves visites que proposa aquesta iniciativa popular de caràcter divulgatiu.

Una cita única que permet a cada ciutadà/ciutadana dissenyar el seu itinerari per descobrir l´arquitectura que defineix el seu passat, present i futur.

Aquest any es podran visitar són 155 edificis de diferents tipologies, formes i mesures. Ascendir a l'emblemàtica Torre de Collserola (arq. Norman Foster, 1889-1992); descobrir les recentment estrenades instal·lacions d'un centre de creació com la Central del Circ al Fòrum (arq. Xavier Ruscalleda i Marta Lorenzo xxm_Arquitectura, 2010); traslladar-se al segle XVIII al endinsar-se en les estades del Palau Moxó (arq. Francesc Mestres, 1977), l'únic palau privat de Barcelona que conserva el seu mobiliari i interiors originals; endinsar-se en un dels habitatges del projecte Casa Bloc (arq. Josep Lluís Sert, Joan Baptista Subirana i Josep Torres Clavé (GATCPAC), 1933-1939), un grup de 200 habitatges de tipologia dúplex i de lloguer destinat originalment a acollir els obrers que vivien en barraques de condicions precàries i avui museïtzat com a exemple d'arquitectura moderna; admirar la rehabilitació de l´ Hotel Espanya, edifici original de 1859 que manté les intervencions modernistes de Domènech i Montaner, Eusebi Arnau i Ramon Casas; infiltrar-se al taller- habitatge d´un conegut artista de la ciutat o inscriure´s en una visita comentada al cementeri de Montjuïc són algunes de les singulars propostes que 48H OHB_2011 incorpora com a novetat a la seva programació.

48H OHB és membre de l´Open House Worlwide

www.48hopenhousebarcelona.org

The Art of Living focuses on Horta´s innovations in the programme of civil living and the diaspora of his concepts on Brussels and Europe. Horta designed the most optimal living and residential environment. To Horta Living means an act and atmosphere at the same time. With nature as benchmark he takes stone, glass and metal to form a biomorphous architecture sprouting from the way people are and live.
The Art of Shopping reflects the times when Emile Zola wrote his novel Au bonheur des Dames in 1883 and focuses on shopping in stores and warehouses designed by Horta and the atmosphere of shopping at the turn of the century in 1900 in Brussels and Europe.

Based around the innovative jewellery designs of members of the Darmstadt Artists´ Colony-Peter Behrens, Rudolf Bosselt, Paul Bürck, Hans Christiansen, Johann Vincenz Cissarz, Ludwig Habich, Patriz Huber and Joseph Maria Olbrich-a unique exhibition on European jewellery history from around 1900 will once more take place in autumn 2011. It will be held in the exhibition rooms of the Museum Künstlerkolonie (Darmstadt Artists´ Colony), housed in impressive Jugendstil-era buildings. Highly valued pieces of jewellery by René Lalique, Georges Fouquet, Jan Eisenloeffel and Fabergé present a detailed overview of the outstanding creativity these artists expressed through the Jugendstil.

As well as including the Museum Künstlerkolonie´s finest jewellery, the exhibition displays a selection of particularly exquisite objects from the outstanding Jugendstil jewellery collection in the Hessisches Landesmuseum. This museum´s inventory is based on the collection of the Dutch court jeweller Karel A. Citroen (b. 1922). On display are works by the famous Parisian jewellers, goldsmiths and enamellers René Lalique and Georges Fouquet as well as André-Fernand Thesmar and Lucien Gaillard. Lalique sparked a revolution in the field of jewellery design while inspiring Viennese jewellery production at the turn of the century, which neverthless developed in a different direction. Josef Hoffmann´s stricter designs are a statement that the artistic composition and handworked quality of a piece of jewellery is more important than its value in raw materials.

It is difficult to believe that a piece of architecture that was acclaimed in its period, barely more than a century ago, and built with a masterly savoir faire out of the finest quality materials, should be revealed to be so fragile. Its history could become the plot of a modern fable.

This exhibition, which the Maison Autrique is dedicating to Victor Horta, proposes following or retracing the key moments of a piece of architecture which has long since disappeared. This initiative is another push in the movement to recover Art Nouveau history, a movement that has been of the highest importance in the Brussels region for several years.

"Victor Horta - A Lost World", open to the public until 31 December 2011, fulfils expectations: the pieces, works and films presented are simply extraordinary. The exhibition is structured around three themes: projects which were never undertaken (such as the Congo Pavilion), those that destiny has done away with (l´Innovation department store, for example) and those which humans have destroyed (the Maison du Peuple is the most iconic example).

These vanished projects come alive again at the Maison Autrique in different ways: Horta´s plans and sketches, impressive remains (which you can even touch), reconstructions and some period film pieces. The whole forms a highly coherent, varied exhibition.

From Saturday, 1 October 2011 to Sunday, 8 January 2012, a guided route is being offered to get to know Enric Sagnier´s architecture. This is the architect with the largest number of buildings in Barcelona. This itinerary, which coincides with the exhibition that CaixaForum is holding on the architect, aims to reveal the different archaeological styles of this prolific artist by visiting buildings such as the Arnús Bank, the Miquel Fargas House, the Church of Pompeii, or a single-family home situated on the Avinguda Diagonal.

For more information: www.rutadelmodernisme.com

The Centre Pompidou presents "Edvard Munch, l'oeil moderne" [Edvard Munch, the modern eye], a collection never-seen-before in France of around eighty paintings, thirty artworks done on paper, fifty photographs and a film. Showing the work of the famous Norwegian painter (1853-1944) in a different light, this exhibition shows how much the artist's curiosity for all of the forms of representation of his era fuelled his inspiration and his work. His experience of photography, cinema, his readings of the illustrated press and even his work for the theatre profoundly influenced his work, the brilliant modernity of which the exhibition reveals.