Work data:
Author: Jaume Plensa (Barcelona, 1955)
Title: The Heart of the Trees
Year of creation: 2007
Materials and dimensions: Cast steel and cypress. Variable dimensions.
Seven sculptures, seven bronze bodies, as many as musical notes, each embracing a cypress tree. Jaume Plensa has become an essential artist in public spaces, not only for his numerous interventions, but also for his ability to connect his sculptures with both the viewers and the environment.
The human figure is the protagonist of his work, and although Plensa uses his own body as a model, he does not intend to represent himself. Each person is unique and unrepeatable, but is part of a society, a culture: the relationship between the particular and the general, the fragment and the whole, the small and the large, is the central idea of his work. The body ends up being something inert that does not change; however, the tree will continue to grow, and one day it will cover the face and overflow the human figure. The body and the tree as metaphors for the physical and the spiritual.
The body is a container for words, ideas, and data. Jaume Plensa is a lover of words and music, words that permeate his sculptures, works full of power and poetry that, with eyes closed, invite reflection.