Text: Juan David Latorre. Photos: Embassy of Italy.
In mid-June, the new headquarters of the Italian Consulate General in Barcelona, headed by Consul General Gaia Danese, opened its doors at Carrer Aribau, 185. The space combines design and functionality to serve the more than 108,000 registered Italians.
“It is a source of great pride for me to see the inauguration of the new headquarters of the Consulate General of Italy in Barcelona”, said the Italian Ambassador, Riccardo Guariglia, who highlighted “the important role as a bridge between Italy and Spain represented by our great community”.
“The space, more modern and functional than the previous one, will be a prestigious showcase for the Italian System in Spain and will make the provision of consular services more efficient for compatriots living in the Barcelona district, as well as for Spanish friends who love Italy and who will find a new point of reference here”, the Italian ambassador stressed.
For her part, Consul General Gaia Danese commented at the inauguration ceremony that “the space of the new Italian Consulate General in Barcelona is based on a totally innovative concept and stems from the firm commitment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Italian communities abroad. Inspired by organisational well-being, it promotes accessibility to citizens, is conceived as a point of reference for the management of administrative services and also as a new space in the city to make visible, transmit and share the values of “Made in Italy”. This is why we wanted to carry it out with the participation of great Italian interior design excellences, with the collaboration of the students of the Istituto Europeo di Design and generating a dialogue between a Catalan architect and an Italian interior designer living in Barcelona. We are very grateful to all of them.
The move of the consulate’s location has been largely due to the exponential growth of the Italian resident population, which has increased by 40% in the last 5 years, leaving the previous headquarters obsolete to offer adequate services to the 108,000 Italians living in an area that stretches from Aragon to Murcia, including Catalonia, the Valencian Community, the Balearic Islands and Andorra.
The space renovation project is the result of the valuable collaboration between different agents: Alberto Formatger’s Imad architecture studio for the distribution of the spaces and the technical-legal part, together with Lagranja, whose co-founder is the Italian Gabriele Schiavon, for the interior design, and Michela Mezzavilla for the lighting design. With regard to furniture, the new Consulate will feature the participation of Italian design benchmarks such as Artemide, Cassina, Listone Giordano, Pedrali and Casa Lube, and the presence of unique pieces made by internationally renowned Italian architects and designers based in Barcelona, such as Benedetta Tagliabue, and emerging talents such as Aldo Sollazzo and Carmelo Zappulla.
The new headquarters will also host permanent and temporary exhibitions, show-cooking events, talks and business and cultural presentations and will have a collection of works of art donated or loaned by Italian artists living in Barcelona, such as Michele Motis, David Scognamiglio, Tv Boy, Caterina Miralles Tagliabue and Alessia Laudoni, author of the photographic project “Ragazze italiane”, dedicated to Italian female talent in Barcelona, which will be exhibited in the garden of the Palau Robert from 2 September.
La nueva sede acogerá, además, exposiciones permanentes y temporales, eventos de show-cooking, charlas y presentaciones empresariales y culturales y contará con un fondo de obras de arte donadas o cedidas por artistas italianos residentes en Barcelona, como Michele Motis, David Scognamiglio, Tv Boy, Caterina Miralles Tagliabue y Alessia Laudoni, autora del proyecto fotográfico “Ragazze italiane”, dedicado al talento femenino italiano en Barcelona, que se expondrá en el jardín del Palau Robert a partir del 2 de septiembre.
