Overwhelming amounts of Surrealism: The Dalí Museum & Figueres

Since I have yet to keep up with this blog, and two weeks have passed without an update, I am going to split this update into two; this is my post from the week of October 19th. 

Each day here in Spain seems to pass by without a second thought. Everything has become so very comfortable, it's all a bit strange. It has now been 8 weeks, and I guess that much time in any place is definitely enough to find yourself forgetting exactly where you are. I catch myself reminding myself that I am still in Barcelona. As the days pass, and the classes come and go, I always find myself looking forward to the weekend. Not solely because of the lack of responsibility and class, but also because I have time to do some more exploring. During that specific weekend, our group of Richmond students had an excursion to the Dali Museum in Figueres, a town about 2 hours north of Barcelona and about 30 minutes from the south of France. Although I am pretty sure most of us knew a little about Dali, I don't think any of us had any idea what we were about to see.


Dalí had high hopes of making his small Costa Brava town a world city, where people would flock to enjoy what he considered the most beautiful place on earth. What's a better idea then creating, in his little town, a huge homage to himself? So Dalí bought out the old theatre in his town, and began a 13 year construction project to create a museum (an artwork in itself) dedicated to himself. Not only did Dalí live there, but after he died, he was buried there. Surrounding the museum are various statues and sculptures made by Dalí and other important artists of the time. 

Dalí was part of the Surrealist movement, a movement that rebelled against bourgeoisie "rational" thought. Basically they believed that the subconscious, and life in general, was not well ordered or logical, instead life was disorganized. This mentality saturated their artwork, and manifested itself in odd juxtapositions and their lack of censoring their material. Dalí was also influenced by Miró (another Catalan artist from Barcelona), and Picasso. 


The entirety of Dalí's museum seemed to question normal perceptions of life, society, perception, and death. His artwork was not only disorganized, but scattered throughout the old theatre surrounded by other works without logical connections. One room had walls completely covered with red velvet to make the visitors feel as if they were inside a tomb, I felt like I was exploring the most personal thoughts of the artist. In this room were multiple paintings of Dalí's wife and lover, Gala, who seemed to fill every one of Dalí's thoughts. 


I was impressed by the overwhelming nature of all the artwork and felt like my time there was not nearly enough to understand even a small portion of Dali's works.The room that I enjoyed the most was a room that could be its own apartment, however, it was made up of the face of a woman. To the right you can see the paintings (and eyes), the table (and nose), the sofa (and lips). What you can't see is the bathroom on the roof of the room, and the bed (a canopy style bed surround by ivies and trees). It was incredible!


After making it through this crazy museum, we walked around the city a bit, found a small restaurant, ate some lunch, and grabbed a train back to Barcelona.


next update: Sevilla!!


until next time,
xoxo

insights into spanish "social" culture...

I keep saying that I will be better at keeping up-to-date with this blog, but alas, life abroad has not quite allotted me the opportunity (or I just CANNOT budget my time). It has currently been 6 weeks since I have been here in Barcelona and I guess all the incredible and surprising things about the city has sort of droned off into the background of my life here. Although I continue to put off doing laundry, buying groceries regularly, I have gotten used to the ridiculous amounts of walking, figured out the metro and learned to cook some (freaking) incredible catalan/italian food. You guys can be the judges of that when I get an apartment and cook pan con tomate and patatas bravas for you...get excited. I supposed the only things that continue to pop up everywhere are two things that are a bit jaded in the U.S.: P.D.A. and alcohol. Now, I know what you are thinking...is this really appropriate for a blog post? The answer is yes, and don't worry I won't be going into any uncomfortable details.

In the U.S. I think its safe to say that P.D.A. (public displays of affection) is pretty controversial: some people don't have any problems engaging in a little kissing in public, and others are totally against it. In Spain, it's almost as if the more affection you show in public, the more in love you are. My spanish teacher even told us that they just look at affection as a definition of love...thus, all couples do it. The metro is filled with couples kissing (with tongue and everything), and the beach is just over-flowing with couples displaying their love. I still can't believe the extent of people here that are so affectionate. Affection isn't something uncomfortable here, its something normal, usual. Even mothers and daughters hold hands, sons put their arms around their fathers...it's strange to me, because I am American, but it got me to think about our type of affection in the U.S. Why are we less affectionate?

Talking to my spanish friends, we came up with a few possible explanations. In Spain, family ties are very strong, and most kids continue to live with their parents until they are married or move in with their girlfriend/boyfriend. While living with parents, kids don't want to bringing their girlfriends/boyfriends home with them and so they find other places to spend time and be together. While we see love and affection as a private matter, to them it is not something that can be private. Sex in general, in Europe, seems is much less restricted. About 80% of spanish women don't wear tops on the beach, and men openly hit on women in the streets. Sex is openly discussed (even in our spanish classes!). Maybe this is why there are fewer violent sex crimes in european cities compared to U.S. cities.

When I think about kids staying at home for so long, it makes me absolutely love the way that family life works here in Spain; it's great that families are so close and kids can be dependent for so much longer. Instead of stressing about jobs, kids can just stay home and count on parents to support them until they find something for themselves. Most kids don't leave the city they have grown up in, and so they are so much more connected to "home" then most people in the U.S. Families usually eat big sunday dinners and maintain good relationships with uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. I am definitely not saying that the spanish mindset is better then the U.S. - to us, they seem over-dependent - it's just so incredible how different two cultures can be.

The other thing that I really love about spanish culture is the drinking culture. Kids are able to drink here legally at 16. Parents drink wine with their teenagers, they teach them acceptable drinking. Sure, kids, men and women get drunk here - but its not the same blackout drunk that we see in the lodges every weekend. Going to a bar, relaxing, & drinking socially is usual for students, even every night. We can buy beers in the school cafeteria during our breaks, and you can always find a group of spanish students sitting around laughing and drinking outside.

There's just something about restriction that makes everyone want to rebel. It's natural. When I see the way this culture handles both sex and alcohol, and then compare it to the U.S. it's just so obvious that we are over-restricted. If I could change two things about the U.S. it would definitely be in regards to those two subjects...and of course adding the siesta into our daily lives.

gran beso...
xoxo