With a multidisciplinary and inclusive approach, Extramurs encourages dialogue across institutions, engagement with public space, and conversations with the environment. Developed in collaboration with Barcelona’s EINA University School of Art and Design, and the Barcelona Grec Festival, Extramurs helps us rethink the role of institutions from a holistic perspective, through creations and activities that address contemporary needs and promote new community-based narratives in urban spaces. Inspired by the concept of situated knowledge, the project invites reflection on how we interact with our surroundings and how we might inhabit the world in a more conscious and inclusive way. It also champions the idea of public walls as bearers of city residents’ voices, places where collective narratives take shape and shared experiences gain new meaning, resonating directly with Tàpies’ philosophical outlook.

An annual initiative, each edition of Extramurs is presented in public spaces to coincide with the Barcelona Grec Festival. The 2025 edition has invited artist Elena del Rivero, under the curatorship of Mateo Feijóo, to unveil Transitar La Quema [The Burning], a project rooted in intensive research and collaborative production in relation to the symbolic burning of her early works as an act of healing. Installations conceived by del Rivero as part of Extramurs, created in collaboration with students from EINA, will be shown on the façade and inside the Museu Tàpies, as well as at Santa Maria del Pi, La Capella, and the gardens of the Teatre Grec. The exhibition will include photographs, collages, diaries, objects, and even a neon sign. This cartography of altered spaces will invite audiences to reflect on the resilience of human and social structures and the dialogue between past and present, highlighting the tensions and continuities that shape the historical construction of today’s urban life.

The opening of Transitar La Quema will take place in the Jardins de Rubió i Lluch gardens with the concert L’espai alliberat, led by Llorenç Barber, musician, composer, musicologist, campanologist, and a pioneer of sound art in Europe. A trailblazer in Spain’s minimalist music scene, Barber has developed his own technique using a mobile bell tower he created himself. He will showcase it in a joint concert featuring local musicians from the Conservatori Municipal de Música de Barcelona and the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya, as well as some of his visual art pieces. Barber’s bell concerts have been held in over 200 cities across 20 countries, including at three European Capitals of Culture (Lisbon, Copenhagen, and Stockholm) closing events; art biennials and fairs in Japan, France, Thailand, and Brazil; and opening ceremonies for the International Summit of Heads of State and Government (in Salamanca and Rome).

The sound of the bells will usher us into the world of Elena del Rivero, an internationally acclaimed artist whose work is deeply rooted in reparation and memory. We invite you to join us in reflecting on the resilience of human and social structures and the dialogue between past and present, highlighting the tensions and continuities that shape the historical construction of today’s urban life.

Co-produced by the Grec 2025 Festival de Barcelona and Museu Tàpies.

Free admission, booking required. Booking link  avalaible from June 17th.