"The assignment began in April 2007, when we received a phone call from Toni Esteva, the collaborator architect of Miquel Barceló for this project. He explained us some skills of Barceló’s idea.
We met Esteva in Mallorca to start defining the order of Barceló and we loved the project. The artist wanted us to design and produce all the rugs that will cover the whole perimeter of the room (600 squared meters average) and he wanted the rugs the have relieves.
In July 2007 Nani and the design team visited Miquel Barceló at his studio in Paris. He gave us more detailed information about the maritime cave he wanted to create in the dome of the room. He also talked about the concept of gravity he was working on. He wanted to have rugs with relief over the walls in order to emulate drops falling from the stalactites of the dome. He showed us a scale model of the dome and gave us some card boards he painted.
We started working from those sketches to interpret his concept in the huge space of the room. Actually, one of the biggest difficulties was moving his concept to such a huge space and obtaining a clear room, as the artist wished.
We decided to produce the rugs by hand knotted technique to obtain the best quality in the development of relieves. We did some prototypes until the artist and the architect decided the definitive ones and we started the production in India.
The first proposal was in light grey, but architect Toni Esteva suggested us to produce them in ecru to get a more spacious room. Moreover, the natural colour gave more luminosity and helped to enhance the spectacular dome.
The draw of the drops falling from the stalactites gives continuity between the maritime cave and the walls and helps to understand the room as a unique concept.
By covering the walls with rugs the room becomes warmer and cosier. The high quality of the rugs provides acoustic insulating and creates comfortably and soft sensations. Otherwise, the walls should have been too cold and would have broken the consistency of the cave concept in the room".
nanimarquina
