Carmela

Walking through Barcelona, we came upon this enormous face standing unexpectedly on the street near the Palau de la Música Catalana. It is exactly the kind of discovery I love when traveling. Here is something we were not necessarily looking for that immediately made us stop and wonder what it was.

The sculpture is called Carmela and was created in 2015 by Catalan artist Jaume Plensa. Made of cast iron and standing about 14½ feet high, it portrays the face of a teenage girl from Barcelona with her eyes gently closed. Plensa deliberately distorted and compressed the head, so the sculpture changes dramatically depending upon where you stand. From one direction it appears almost impossibly narrow; move around it and a recognizable human face emerges.

Plensa has said that Carmela represents the transition between childhood and adulthood. The closed eyes and peaceful expression give her an introspective quality, as though she is turned inward despite standing in the middle of a busy city. The sculpture is monumental in size, yet there is something very quiet about it.

What I especially like is that Carmela was never supposed to become a permanent part of this street. It was installed outside the Palau de la Música in 2016 as part of a temporary exhibition of Plensa’s work. It was scheduled to remain for only a few months. But residents became so attached to it that a campaign began asking that Carmela be allowed to stay. Plensa responded by lending the sculpture to Barcelona for eight years. 

And the story continued. In 2024, when that agreement expired, Barcelona and Plensa extended it for another eight years. Carmela had gone from a temporary artwork to a familiar part of the neighborhood. 

That makes our accidental discovery of her even more interesting. We simply encountered this enormous, mysterious face while walking through Barcelona, stopped to photograph it, and continued on our way. It is a wonderful example of how public art can become part of a place