You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Gaudi was everywhere during the 40th Congress of the International Psychoanalytical Association in Barcelona in the summer of 1997. From the logo for the Congress, inspired by his ceramic architectural mosaics, to the awesome spires of his unfinished ‘Sagrada Familia’ cathedral that had introduced the city to the world's television audience of the 1992 Olympics; from the exuberant whimsy of Guell Park to the modernist apartment house ‘La Pedrera’—coffee break conversations at the Congress were sprinkled with, ‘Have you seen …?’
Thus it was fitting that the Congress programme ended with a panel discussion that attempted an understanding of this complex architectural genius and his work, the undisputed exemplar of Catalan modernism.
Folch began with some general reflections on the nature of psychoanalytic approaches to art and, in particular, to architecture. We may begin with the artist's life and look for ways in which his biographical experiences and peculiar characteristics are reflected in the creative effort; or we may begin with the work itself and make connections with the artist's individuality and feelings through the relationship created within us when we experience his work. This latter approach is particularly apt when the work is structural, because we can place ourselves affectively in the place and context of its creation—that is, with the artist, we inhabit his creation's spaces and, within our own mental spaces, atmospheres and moods are unveiled that convey the message of his work. Thus the work becomes both symbol and symbolished.
With Gaudi's work, both deliberate symbols and unintentional symbols intertwine to express his message, which he conveys through the multiple forms of materials, colour, sculpture, acoustic properties, and even words engraved on the stones. However, according to Folch, Gaudi's strongest symbolism in the Sagrada Familia cathedral is not in the decorative detail but in the use of the hyperbolic paraboloid form, which symb