Centre de Cultura Contemporània, Barcelona
Carles Vinardell, Gianni Ruggiero and Michele Bonino
Naxo Farreras
The staircase as a leading player in the history of world architecture; the staircase as the inspiration for other arts—painting, photography, film, literature...; the staircase as an ingenious device that is in danger of extinction, victim of the proliferation of regulations and by-laws. These themes, which were merely sketched in the chapter “Réquiem por la escalera” of the book Todo es comparable (Editorial Anagrama, Barcelona 1998), are developed and acquire physical presence in the exhibition. To this end we had recourse to several of the arts, although the exhibition was not ordered on an art-by-art basis. We did not specify certain rooms to show the staircase in painting or the staircase in film; rather, the pictorial or cinematographic examples contribute to the explanation of an architectural theme: the spiral staircase, or the pretence of weightlessness, or the rejection of the balustrade... For this reason, as well as the architectural and sculptural elements designed specifically for the exhibition, it was essential to be able to show the paintings, drawings, engravings, photographs and film clips that are closely related to the theme.