Richard Meier

Situado en la degradada zona del Raval, el Museu d Art Contemporani de Barcelona establece un diálogo entre el tejido urbano histórico de este barrio y el arte contemporáneo que alberga en su interior. El caracter laberintico de las calles y caminos del e

Published in Poligrafa's new series on museum architecture, this volume is devoted to the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona--widely known by its acronym "MACBA"--designed by American architect Richard Meier (born 1934). Located in the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona, MACBA forges a dialogue with the historic urban quarter. The neighborhood's labyrinthine streets are reflected in the building's organization, most notably in the main entry, as well as a parallel pedestrian walkway that connects the museum's rear garden to a recently created plaza in front of the museum. As befits an institution devoted to modern and contemporary art, the museum synthesizes the striking innovation of its rationalist architecture and the accrued history of its context. Offering detailed information on every aspect of the project, this publication features a full-page photographic essay by renowned Spanish photographer Aleix Bague, as well as an in-depth interview with Meier

Richard Meiers first collection of poetry, Misadventure, won many admirers for its wry, wise and sharp-eyed insight into the minutiae of daily life. This, his second, Search Party, casts its net more widely and looks at our experiences of being lost to others, as well as lost from ourselves. Many of the poems in this collection explore attempts to repair severed connections, or to forge links never properly established: from a fathers desperate search for his son missing at sea, to a childs reaction to being denied a responsive gaze, and a footballers sublime (if optimistic) pass to a teammate these poems address the nature of the distances between us. Most importantly, they also show the lengths to which we will go to ensure that these distances are closed, and that the most basic of our needs are met: to be seen, to be recognized and ultimately, sought out and found by one another.

Misadventure won the inaugural Picador Poetry Prize, and is Richard Meiers first collection. Misadventure is a book about what we learn, and what we refuse to learn: although Meiers poems are often deceptively quiet in their address, the reader will soon discover a poet capable of illuminating the darkest corners of our lives by the very lightest of touches, and an ear simultaneously attuned to the lyric poem and the cadence of real speech. The collection also contains some disarmingly tender poetry on the experience of fatherhood. Misadventure is about all the hope and hopelessness lurking just below the surface of things, in our rooms, tables, coats and gardens and leaves them enriched and strange, under the transforming eye of a fine new talent.