A tour of different rooms of the house reveals to the visitor the essence of the Empordà genius, the Dalí character and the public.
Figueres was a modern city at the beginning of the 20th century, with a modern and cosmopolitan atmosphere when a young notary arrived, Salvador Dalí i Cusí, who chose the destination advised by his friend Pepitu Pitxot. He settled on the street Monturiol, number 6, where Salvador Dalí was born on May 11, 1904.
Salvador Dalí’s Birthplace was officially inaugurated today after 28 years of starting to walk showing the family world, the intimate Dalí and the public. For the Councilor for Culture, Mariona Seguranyes, “this is Figueres’ tribute to Dalí.”
The painter would not be the same if he had not been born in Figueres and Empordà. It is one of the first statements at the beginning of a tour of the birthplace where, accompanied by the voice of an audio guide, “we will be able to reconstruct the origin of the Dalinian personality.” An immersion in the thousand faces of Dalí. You can walk through rooms such as the kitchen, the bedroom or the gallery of the house in which he lived and where so many important figures of the time paraded around having gatherings. When traveling, technology allows immersion in the character and in the landscape of Empordà.
The birthplace has been converted into this journey through which in groups of eight people and in a one-way route the different faces of the painter and everything that influenced him come closer. Admission costs between 8 and 12 euros and the audio guide is provided. “What we wanted to do is make it a very emotional visitthat immersed you in Salvador Dalí and that you could practically touch him,” explains the director, Eduard Bech. You can also see works such as ‘Portrait of my father’ (1925) or ‘Portrait of the mother’ (1913). The first It is part of the collection of the National Museum of Art of Catalonia.
The origin of a genius
The kitchen is the only original element of the house, but the room and the gallery are reproduced. A toy easel, the cages where the mother raised canaries and an image of the window that overlooked the garden are elements that are introduced into the family environment. Paintings that he dedicated, for example, to Anna Maria, his muse and confidant. Or details of family history are known such as brother Salvador Dalí, with the same name as the painter, who died when he was less than two years old due to an intestinal infection. The mother, who died when Dalí was 16 years old, and assumed the “end of childhood” or Father Dalí, whom he admired and hated. On the second floor, a series of images serve to enter his mind, into the painter’s vital journey, which took him to Madrid, where he meets Luis Buñuel or Federico García Lorca. Gala’s appearance, which represents a before and after, is “the muse” that “replaces the sister.”
The public Dalí
The doors of success that open to him in Paris or New York, the performances, advertisements and films are also included in the story under a motto: “in the character everything is strategy.” Dalí would create an entire character and would come to have some mustaches measuring 25 centimeters from tip to tip. André Breton, rearranging the letters of his name, coined the name Avida Dollars, thirsty for money. His relationship with surrealism, science and the influence of landscape on painting crystallize in one of the last rooms of the museum, where they overlap images of Empordà and pictorial works. A space that excites, envelops the visitor with images and transports them to corners and landscapes.
Opening
The opening ceremony included speeches by Raquel Sánchez, acting Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda of the Government of Spain.; Natalia Garriga, Minister of Culture of the Generalitat of Catalonia; and Jordi Masquef, mayor of Figueres. Also attending, among other authoritiesMariona Seguranyes, Councilor for Culture of Figueres, Heritage and Cultural Tourism; and Eduard Bech, director of the Empordà Museum and the Salvador Dalí Birthplace.
The inauguration party of the Salvador Dalí Birthplace will be this Friday the 20th at night. The starting gun will be at 6 p.m. with a sardana dance on the Rambla, which the notary Dalí liked so much.