The exhibition’s curator, art historian Albert Cortés, invites us to look at the Corpus Christi procession through the objects and other corporeal elements that take part in it. All the city’s institutions, both civil and ecclesiastical, joined forces in a grand celebration to pay homage to the Blessed Sacrament. Yet, the procession was also an occasion for pageantry and display, a chance to manifest authority and power, to see and be seen.
All these aspects were and remain present in Barcelona’s Corpus Christi celebrations through a variety of objects that danced, made sounds, burned, or were simply carried to communicate to spectators, either explicitly or symbolically, who the bearer was, their place in the procession, and what they sought to represent. For over 700 years, the people of Barcelona have been adding, modifying, or removing these objects up to the present day; but whether they belong to our present or to a distant past, they all speak of relationships: between God and the people, between neighbours and communities, between social classes and genders.
Taking these premises as its starting point, the exhibition offers us a glimpse into the Corpus Christi procession through the objects and other corporeal elements that participate. Structured around different thematic areas, the curator takes us on a journey through the procession via objects from the mythical world (giants and beasts, monsters and demons, from the past, present, and future…), objects of devotion (the monstrance, processional candles…), objects of honour (ceremonial dressing and accompanying, decorating and transforming the space…), objects of authority (identity and precedence, order and meanings), and sensory objects.