Bacelona dawned this Sunday with a peculiar artistic-Christmas spectacle : hundreds of miniature sheep, barely five centimeters, have been installed in the streets of the old town. They are on railings, walls, cornice and benches, forming a “disoriented flock” in search of the traditional manger of the Plaza de Sant Jaume, which this year has been replaced by a large luminous star.
This alternative “manger” is a new intervention by Joan Juncosa, an urban artist who uses public space as a canvas for his claims. According to the artist, this project was born, in opposition to the non-pesebre of Plaça Sant Jaume, “to reflect on whether in a city that is increasingly depersonalized and globalized, it makes sense to get rid of our traditions”.
For the artist, the manger in Sant Jaume represented a unique space of encounter between the religious and the secular, and with this flock he wants to give back to the people “the feeling of having their manger in the street”.
It is not the first installation of the artist and architect, whose vindicative works always have a nostalgic tone. In the past he filled the streets with colorful urinals to criticize the abandonment of public space, symbolically restored the modernist benches of Passeig de Gràcia and decorated the city with pop-up tiles that went viral on social networks. His works have even reached as far away as San Francisco, Jordan and Hong Kong.
The flock of sheep will remain in the streets until the end of the holidays, offering one more Christmas entertainment to the crowded streets of Ciutat Vella during this festive season.