(Figueras) Nearly 120 years after his birth, Salvador Dalí’s birthplace opened its doors in the center of Figueras, Catalonia, on Friday for an immersion in the life of the genius of surrealism.
It took almost three decades for the municipality of this city in northeastern Spain to acquire and renovate this three-story building where the artist was born on May 11, 1904 and lived until he was 8 years old. Nearly €4 million ($5.8 million) was invested.
Inside, the visitor is greeted by a hologram of Dalí’s father working in his notary office. The immersion in the different stages of the artist’s life lasts around an hour thanks to an audio guide synchronized in each room with images or videos.
Upstairs, the Dalí family apartment has been reconstructed. In the parents’ bedroom, you can see the photo of the first Salvador Dalí Domènech, the artist’s big brother, who died a few months before his birth, an absence which will mark his life.
“He saw this photo every time he entered his parents’ room. And he was like, “How am I going to compete with someone who’s not here anymore?” », told the press Mariona Seguranyes, deputy mayor of Figueras responsible for Culture. “He himself explained how it traumatized him.”
The birthplace, however, does not house any works by the artist, which are exhibited in the Dalí Theater-Museum, inaugurated in 1974, which he himself created in the city.
