• The María Cristina Masaveu Peterson Foundation (FMCMP) and Madrid City Council have extended the sculpture’s stay until December 2023.

• The sculpture has become an icon of the city so the FMCMP, owner of the piece, has decided to lend it to Madrid for another year before continuing its itinerancy.

The urban landscape of the city of Madrid will continue to feature Julia, a work by Jaume Plensa produced under the patronage of the Fundación María Cristina Masaveu Peterson (FMCMP), until December 2023.

The María Cristina Masaveu Peterson Foundation (FMCMP), taking into account the importance that Julia has gained in the Madrid landscape and its great appreciation by the public, has agreed to extend for another year the exhibition of this twelve-metre-high sculpture made of polyester resin and white marble powder, which forms part of an artistic programme organised by Madrid City Council, and which was presented in December 2018.

For Jaume Plensa, his sculptures of heads with closed eyes located in the public space, such as Julia, represent this part of the body as a great container of human knowledge and emotions. In his own words: “they always have their eyes closed because what interests me is what is inside this head. As if the spectator, in front of my work, could think that it is a mirror and reflect himself, close his eyes too, try to understand all the beauty that we keep hidden inside us”.

This focus of calm and introspection that Julia represents, as many chronicles of the city have recorded, has continued to modify the perception of the urban environment, demanding tranquillity and reflection, demonstrating how art serves to give encouragement and hope in difficult times.

This innovative patronage initiative has made it possible for Jaume Plensa – Velázquez Prize for the Arts in 2013, among many other awards – to exhibit a work of this kind for the first time in Spain. The choice of this artist, with an internationally renowned career, is intended to give a boost to the development of future projects in this space.

Julia is a unique work of art, commissioned by the Foundation as part of its line of patronage art projects, and forms part of the Art Collection of the María Cristina Masaveu Peterson Foundation. The project is intended to be itinerant, as after its visit to Madrid it will continue its exhibition in different cities around the world.

Jaume Plensa (Barcelona, 1955) is an artist of materials, sensations and ideas. His references include literature, poetry, music and thought.

He considers himself, first and foremost, a sculptor, although his creative process has gone through multiple disciplines. His works address the very condition of being: its physical and spiritual essence, its awareness of itself and its past, its moral codes and dogmas and its relationship with nature.

Born in Barcelona in 1955, he studied at the Llotja and at the Sant Jordi Fine Arts School. Since 1980, the year of his first exhibition in Barcelona, he has lived and worked in Germany, Belgium, England, France and the United States, and currently lives in Barcelona.

Jaume Plensa exhibits regularly in galleries and museums in Europe, the United States and Asia, but a very significant part of his work is developed for public spaces. His works have been permanently installed in Spain, France, Japan, England, Korea, Germany, Canada, the United States, China, etc.

He has taught at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and is a regular guest lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has also given numerous lectures and courses at universities, museums and cultural institutions around the world.

www.jaumeplensa.com