DES DEL CENTRE. Eugènia Balcells

Multimedia installation (New York, 1982 — Barcelona, 2025). Sound: Peter Van Riper

Created in New York City between 1980 and 1982, FROM THE CENTER is a pivotal work in both the career of the artist Eugènia Balcells (Barcelona, 1943) as well as in the history of video art itself, as the work represents one of the first multichannel pieces. The sounds of each of the twelve channels were created by the musician and sound pioneer Peter Van Riper (1942-1998). Shot over two years from the rooftop of Balcells’ New York City studio, each video looks at various fragments of the world: birds, buildings, traffic, the moon (with a plane miraculously crossing in front of it) and even the sun, which cannot be looked at head-on.

Eugènia Balcells has now crafted a definitive installation of the work entitled DES DEL CENTRE, under an iridescent dome that suggests a spherical completeness and reflects light, the very essence of the universe. The inside evokes the great megalithic monuments of antiquity, a sort of “electronic Stonehenge”, in the artist’s own words. The dream of creating an empathic connection with the universe becomes, in the light of the evolution of humanity, a scientific, poetic and moral requirement for the 21st century.

FROM THE CENTER has been acquired by the Generalitat de Catalunya for the National Collection of Contemporary Art, and is now a key piece of art in the MNAC. Combining technology and spirituality, FROM THE CENTER forms a connection with the Romanesque wall paintings, the great instruments of mystical vision that represent the core of the Museum’s collection.