After walking through several streets of Barcelona in Vampiros, the new video clip of Rosalía and Rauw Alejandro, the artists move to a place that is not well known but of great cultural value located in the metropolitan area of the Catalan capital. This is the Espai Corberó de Esplugues de Llobregat, a municipality that shares the county, Baix Llobregat, with Sant Esteve Sesrovires, the place where the Catalan artist grew up.
The Espai Corberó is also known as the Casa dels Cecs and is located behind a discreet door in the old town of Esplugues. It is one of the most important works by Xavier Corberó, an internationally recognized Catalan artist. It is a habitable building, a kind of house conceptualized as a sculpture that began to rise in 1968.
It has 1,955 square meters and has several floors, patios, ponds, gardens, cement arcades of various heights, and a forest inhabited by stone and bronze figures. Designed with great detail, several artists lived there.
When Corberó passed away at the age of 81 in 2017, they say that he continued working to improve and make a work in which he invested a lot of money and talent more beautiful. But the space is not well known to the general public, although sometimes select glances have been fixed on it.
And it is not the first time that her beauty has led her to be the scene of major productions. It was the workshop of the painter who was the protagonist of the film Vicky Cristina Barcelona, by the famous Woody Allen. It has also hosted 080 runway shows.
But the luck of Espai Corberó began to change a few months ago. After a negotiation with the relatives, during the month of October the Esplugues City Council formalized its acquisition after approving a budget increase of 2.9 million euros to make it possible.
Some adjustments have to be made to the building, but the City Council's intention is to open it up more to the public so that this jewel of the Barcelona metropolitan area is no longer so hidden. In fact, recently several public events or celebrations have been held there, such as the golden wedding anniversary organized by the City Council, in which a tribute is paid to couples who have been married for 50 years.
At this time, work continues on the use plan that has just defined what can and cannot be carried out there, taking into account that it is a singular and particular place. It is not an easy issue to resolve. For example, placing some security elements such as a simple railing at some points may mean breaking the careful aesthetics of the work of art.
On the other hand, the Espai Corberó is already an important source of income for the municipal administration, which rents it out for private events, such as the filming of Rosalía and Rauw Alejandro. So much so that the investment involved in the purchase is expected to be amortized in a few years.
The day the agreement was signed, Corberó's widow, Midu Rica, celebrated it: "We couldn't take everything as it deserves, but we didn't want to sell it to just anyone either," she said. "The City Council will keep the space as it is," she celebrated.
