43 columns

“Behind a column you can hide, you can fall in love, you can kiss someone… Behind a column you can spy on someone, people can be killed, a date can sprout…”, said Phillipe Stark about the 43 columns that he envisioned for holding the building that he recovered in the center of Bilbao, the Alhóndiga.

This specific part of the work was executed by the Italian Lorenzo Baraldi though, who draw 800 columns “reflecting the different cultures, architectures, wars and religions that influenced the man and the human kind work over the time” before choosing the final 43.

Then it was time to choose the materials. In some cases the same model was made with different materials, like two columns you can see bellow (the first and the last one) that are exactly the same despite the fact one of them was made with Lecce Stone and the other with Terracotta. This way these 43 columns can better reflect all the styles and forms of columns that existed since antiquity until today, also reflecting a little bit of every culture.

But Lorenzo Baraldi’s initial vision only became alive when the 120 professionals that worked in this task started giving form to the columns in their own studios, spread around Europe. And between that moment and the moment of putting the columns in situ five months have passed. In some cases the columns weren’t even built in a studio, instead they were built directly in the ground floor of the Alhóndiga, like in the case of the columns made out of bricks. You can see a little bit more about this mission in here or if you’ll go to Bilbao don’t miss the chance to take the free guided tour (Tuesdays at 7pm if you want it in Spanish) and to know more about this Patio from the Cultures, an “open museum” that will inspire you as well as surprise you.