Valentine’s day can split people’s opinions. For some it expresses their romantic nature, for others it is a shallow holiday. The Kiss mural in Barcelona, a stunning mosaic could be a game changer, awakening a romantic spark even in the hardest of hearts.
Maybe not to the point of celebrating Valentine’s Day, but who knows?
The Kiss mural is the image of two lips kissing. It is located in Plaza Isidre Nonell, near the Cathedral of Barcelona. Literally like one minute from the Cathedral. A well-kept secret blended into the urban landscape of the city.
El Món Neix en Cada Besada – The World Begins With Every Kiss
As you get closer, you realise that the kiss is, in fact, a mosaic made up of tiny ceramic tiles. 4000 of them, to be exact.
The images were provided by locals when Catalan photographer Joan Fontcuberta, called the readers of El Periodico, a local newspaper, to send a photograph expressing their “moments of freedom”.
If you watch closely, you can see the photo of a person, a family, a place, a moment, an event, or something along the theme line.
Joan Fontcuberta collaborated with ceramicist Toni Cumella to form this mural of two people’s lips kissing.
The Kiss mural in Barcelona, a temporary exhibition they never took down
This project was installed in 2014 as part of Barcelona’s Tricentenary celebrations of Catalonia Day, commemorating Barcelona’s surrender during The War of The Spanish Succession, in 1714.
The Kiss mural was destined to be a temporary exhibition. But in the end, the local government decided to keep it on.
I am glad they kept it because it is a true testimony of life in Barcelona. You could get lost for hours looking at each photo. That is when people do not ask you to move because they want to take a picture of course. The perks of modern life :).
A quote to end of this note
“The sound of a kiss is not as loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a great deal longer”, Oliver Wendell Holmes. Found on the plate explaining The Kiss.
Newspaper article link.