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Gaudi’s secrets unlocked this Sunday
A film uncovering the secrets of Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia, featuring the innovative
work of RMIT University’s Professor Mark Burry, will intrigue lovers of art and
architecture when it screens at 7.30pm this Sunday on ABC2.
Liquid Stone: Unlocking Gaudi's Secrets, by Melbourne’s Circe Films, details the
challenge to complete the iconic Barcelona church, as revealed by Professor Burry
and his colleagues – architects and artisans who have spent years of their lives
immersed in unlocking the secrets of the architect’s liquid stone.
The Director of the Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory (SIAL) at RMIT,
Professor Burry took the innovative step of applying aeronautical software to the
project – a decision that would prove transformative to the long process ahead and
also reveal the astonishing constructive genius of Gaudi’s design.
The Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudi’s most ambitious creation, was begun in the
19th century and is still under construction.
Gaudi spent 43 years working on the church and, when he realised it would not be
completed within in his lifetime, he left intricate design models encoded with an
ingenious geometrical system that would enable future generations to complete it.
With his untimely death in 1926 and the destruction of the models during the
Spanish Civil War, the task of continuing its construction posed a daunting enigma
for those who followed.
Using cutting-edge 21st century technology hand-in-hand with traditional artisan
techniques, for the first time in its history, this famously “unfinishable” building is
finally close to being realised. The Sagrada Família will be consecrated by Pope
Benedict XVI in November.
Liquid Stone: Unlocking Gaudi's Secrets – produced by Circe Films and Splice Ltd
in association with Film Victoria, Screen Australia and NZ on Air – will be repeated
on ABC1 at 3.30pm on Sunday, 1 August.
For interviews:
Polly Watkins, Writer/Director, Circe Films (03) 9525 8486 or 0419 325 743.
Professor Mark Burry, Story Consultant and Director of RMIT’s Spatial
Information Architecture Laboratory, (03) 5236 3441 or 0417 379 177.
For general media queries: RMIT University Communications, Paul Noonan,
(03) 9925 2372 or 0409 239 021.
23 July, 2010
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