Primordial Light was first presented in 2025 at the Basilica of the Sagrada Família. In 2026, the project returns to the same space in a second version, developed as a site-specific work and conceived in close collaboration with the Basilica.
Creating an installation for a space such as the Sagrada Família means working with an architecture whose presence is fundamental. The scale of the nave, its verticality, light, materiality and the symbolic significance of the building inevitably become part of the work. The intervention responds to these conditions and incorporates a particularly significant element: Josep Maria Subirachs’s sculpture of Saint George. The existing sculpture enters into dialogue with the projected images and becomes part of the composition, establishing a relationship between architecture, sculpture, light, image and sound.
Inspired by Urlicht, Gustav Mahler’s lied, Primordial Light is structured as a large audiovisual altarpiece comprising seven scenic tableaux. The tradition of the altarpiece provides the framework for a succession of moving images that reinterpret the myth of Saint George through a contemporary visual language.
Saint George, the maiden and the dragon form the three principal elements of the narrative. Through them, the seven tableaux trace a journey through conflict, desolation, combat, hope and resurrection. Digital imagery is treated as scenic material: layers, transparencies, bodies, objects and light create compositions that transform over time and establish a direct relationship with the space in which they appear.
This second version explores this integration in greater depth. Primordial Light was conceived to exist within the Sagrada Família and to engage directly with its architecture. During the installation, the projection, Subirachs’s sculpture and the interior of the Basilica form a single composition, temporarily transforming the perception of one of Barcelona’s most distinctive architectural spaces.
Concept and artistic direction: Ignasi Cristià
Promoter: Basilica of the Sagrada Família
Photography: Pep Daudé
Audiovisual documentation: Jaume Cusachs
