Miquel Barceló and the form of the Holy Sacrament Chapel

A Contemporary Intervention at Majorca Cathedral

Abstract

The chapel of the Santísimo of the Cathedral of Mallorca occupies the right lateral apse of its head. It is of Gothic design and belongs to the oldest nucleus of the cathedral factory, dating from the fourteenth century.

The reform carried out by the artist Miquel Barceló between 2001 and 2006, that is, from the approval of the project to its completion, consisted in the creation of a polychrome ceramic wall of approximately 300 m2, covering almost all the walls architectural In addition, five stained glass windows of twelve meters high with shades of grisaille, and a set of liturgical furnishings made of Binissalem stone and composed of altar, ambo, presidential chair and two banks for the choir, complete the intervention.

The result of all this creative process is a scenographic altarpiece that is configured around a ceramic triptych with three frescoes and two caves. The sea, the earth and the central humanity. The marine caves, replicators of the tubal architecture, mark the connection of the scenic circuit as a simulacrum, as a second skin.