The Secret Heart, by Jaume Plensa, at the doors of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the UB

Photo of the authorities present at the inauguration.
Photo of the authorities present at the inauguration.
News | Divulgation
(29/09/2023)
Yesterday, Thursday, 28 September, the installation The Secret Heart, by Jaume Plensa, was inaugurated on loan to the Hospital Clínic and the University of Barcelona on the occasion of World Heart Day, which has been celebrated every 29 September since 2000 on the initiative of the World Heart Federation (WHF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNESCO. The aim is to raise awareness on cardiovascular diseases, which are the leading cause of death worldwide, and to highlight the importance of preventing and treating them. Among the attendees in the inauguration were Jaume Collboni, Mayor of Barcelona; Manel Balcells, Minister of Health; Joan Guàrdia, Rector of the University of Barcelona; Josep Maria Campistol, Director General of the Hospital Clínic, and Ana García, Head of the Cardiology Department at the Hospital Clínic, together with the artist Jaume Plensa.
Photo of the authorities present at the inauguration.
Photo of the authorities present at the inauguration.
News | Divulgation
29/09/2023
Yesterday, Thursday, 28 September, the installation The Secret Heart, by Jaume Plensa, was inaugurated on loan to the Hospital Clínic and the University of Barcelona on the occasion of World Heart Day, which has been celebrated every 29 September since 2000 on the initiative of the World Heart Federation (WHF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNESCO. The aim is to raise awareness on cardiovascular diseases, which are the leading cause of death worldwide, and to highlight the importance of preventing and treating them. Among the attendees in the inauguration were Jaume Collboni, Mayor of Barcelona; Manel Balcells, Minister of Health; Joan Guàrdia, Rector of the University of Barcelona; Josep Maria Campistol, Director General of the Hospital Clínic, and Ana García, Head of the Cardiology Department at the Hospital Clínic, together with the artist Jaume Plensa.

The installation The Secret Heart will be exhibited until October 2 in the afternoon. This art piece is located at the main door of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Barcelona (campus Clínic, Carrer Casanova). The installation will be on display free of charge until Monday afternoon, 2 October. The piece is 13 meters high by 9.5 meters wide (27 meters in diameter) and weighs 150 kg. It was exhibited, for the first time, in 2014, at the Augsburg-Oberhausen gasworks (Germany).

An art piece exhibited in Germany in 2014 

The artist Jaume Plensa exhibited The Secret Heart in Ausburg, invited by the city's Museum Consortium in three different spaces: in the contemporary art center H2 Centrum für Gegenwartskunts im Glaspalast, in the Schaezlerpalais, and in the gas tank Gaskeel. In the Gaskeel, Jaume Plensa created an inflatable heart that, by filling the space, transformed the old gas tank into a body full of life.   

The Secret Heart was constructed seeking for maximum realism, with synthetic fabrics and hand-painted following the shapes and colors of anatomy models and treatises. In 2014, accompanying the installation in Augsburg was an audio recording in homage to the text Das Geheimherz der Uhr (The Secret Heart of the Clock) by Elias Canetti. Plensa created a voice clock by recording the voices of a multitude of men and women in the city of Augsburg, following the actual passing of seconds, minutes and hours.

Multimedia gallery

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