Brick by Brick

The Museu del Disseny de Barcelona presents the first major exhibition on the uses, symbolism and aesthetics of brick and ceramics applied to architecture.

“Brick by Brick: Ceramics applied to architecture” is a major show featuring pieces created over a period of twelve thousand years, both utilitarian and artistic, that have become part of our cultural heritage, coming from leading European museums and collections.

**Top:** A relief with a lion on the Babylonian processional way, Babylon, now Iraq. Around 575 BC, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum. Photo Olaf M. Teßmer. **Above:** Star-shaped Alizar tile, Manises, 14th century, Museu del Disseny de Barcelona. Photo Guillem Fernández-Huerta

The Museu del Disseny de Barcelona conserves a wide collection of ceramic objects, particularly from medieval times to the present, including both domestic pieces and elements used in architecture. The show features a selection of three hundred ceramic pieces applied in architecture, from Antiquity to the present focusing on the uses, functions, symbolism and aesthetics of this type of ceramic, with works from the ancient world to the present, particularly from the Mediterranean area, including the Middle East.

Mosaics, Maghreb, Idrisid Kingdom, mid-14th century, Émile Dreyfus donation, 1967, Museu del Disseny de Barcelona. Photo Guillem Fernández-Huerta

The first great adobe buildings known to man were constructed in Mesopotamia – where there was little stone – and in Pharaonic Egypt. Bricks have existed for 11,000 years, and their invention changed the art of construction and our spatial imaginary. Buildings could be modulated and extended without serious modifications. While Greece erected monuments of marble, Rome turned to masonry construction, a technique adapted by the Arabs and spread around their realm.

Flooring, Paterna, Valencia, 14th century Museu del Disseny de Barcelona Photo Guillem Fernández-Huerta

Curated by architect Pedro Azara, the show will open simultaneously with the Forty-Seventh Congress of the International Academy of Ceramics in Barcelona, an event that will be hosted as well in the Disseny Hub Barcelona building. Parallel to the exhibition, moreover, the Museum will stage a programme of activities organised in cooperation with the Ceramics Chair of the International University of Catalonia.

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Y-shape water conduit, Athens, 525-500 BC. Terracotta from the House of the Southeast Fountain in the agora. Courtesy the Hellenic Ministry of culture and sports

Corner tile, Seville, 16th century, Museu del Disseny de Barcelona. Photo Guillem Fernández-Huerta

Roof tiles, Jaume Pujol i Bausis & Sons ceramics factory. Esplugues de Llobregat, 1875-1924, porcelain decorated with scale-like lustreware, Ceràmiques Vallvé donation, 1984. Museu del Disseny de Barcelona. Photo Guillem Fernández-Huerta

Eduardo Chillida in collaboration with the ceramicist Hans Spinner, The Poet’s House III, Grasse, France, 1981

Miguel Fisac, Bricks, Madrid, 1952. Díaz Redondo Brothers Collection

ulia Schulz-Dornburg (1961), Ruinas modernas. Una topografía del lucro, Barcelona, 2012. Digital photographs on paper

Miquel Navarro, The City. Valencia, maquette, 1973-1974. Rafael Tous collection. Photo Ros Ribas

until 29 January 2017
Brick by Brick: ceramics applied to ceramics
Museu del Disseny de Barcelona
pl. de les Glòries Catalanes, 37-38
Barcelona

Brick by Brick

The Museu del Disseny de Barcelona presents the first major exhibition on the uses, symbolism and aesthetics of brick and ceramics applied to architecture.

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