Rebecca H.
Yelp
Salvador Dali was one crazy character.
Exhibit A: He was obsessed with flies. For Dali, they represented the passage of time. So he would put honey in his long, thin mustache to attract the little buggers to land on it....so he could observe them more closely (I think I just threw up a little).
Exhibit B: He was endlessly inspired by his muse and wife, Gala--a woman he adored and who is immortalized in many of his works, but with whom he never had an intimate relationship.
Exhibit C: Anything and everything on display in the Dali Museum, located about 90 minutes outside Barcelona in the picturesque town of Figueres, his hometown.
This museum sticks out like a giant, surrealist sore thumb from the vastly different, medieval architecture that surrounds it. The building is topped with large, golden eggs and weirdly fanciful characters peer down at you from parapets, rooftops and balconies: life size deep sea divers wearing their full-on, "life aquatic" gear; classical figures with baguettes where their heads should be; and an army of golden mannequins resembling Oscar statuettes. From the get-go, you have a sense of the wacky, otherworldly mind that Dali had, and the endless creativity that begat those famous melting clocks and freaky, spindly-legged horses.
Once inside, you are fully immersed in Dali's world: and you have to give yourself over to it and embrace the bizarre. Only then can you appreciate how boundless Dali's artistic spirit was, as well as his prodigious talent. The central attraction of the museum is a large, open courtyard that features Cadillac plujós: a classic Cadillac that has the ultimate "hood mount:" a giant, nude fertility goddess with a large rowboat floating in the sky above her. Inside the car sits a driver, with two companions in the back seat. Insert a Euro coin into the car...and the interior becomes bathed in an eerie green light. Rain begins to fall INSIDE the car, and one of the mannequins has an umbrella that pops open over its head.
The main courtyard is surrounded by a stone wall with open archways, each one containing one of those aforementioned Oscar statuettes, all arranged in various poses. The faces of ancient looking monsters made of stone peer out at you from the walls of the courtyard.
Prepare to have your mind blown further with the Mae West room, in which you'll climb a staircase and gaze through a looking glass at furnishings that have been arranged to resemble the face of the famous starlet (note the sink that's attached to the ceiling!); "double image" paintings, two-in-one masterpieces that turn into a second scene as you look more closely; and a recreation of his and Gala's bedroom, which is sheer madness (it will ruin you for any future trips to Ikea).
Don't ask me what any of it means. But I really enjoyed it. My trip to Catalonia would not have been complete without paying a visit to this strange place, shrine to a strange man, whose work captivates, entertains, provokes and befuddles all at once.
