In 2013, Miquel Gelabert was invited to create a monumental sculpture for public display in L’Hospitalet’s Plaça Europa, a hub for international business in the center of the city. Gelabert’s creation is a five meter contemporary totem titled, Esperança (Hope). The city leaders scheduled the installation and inauguration in February 2016 to coincide with the World Mobile Congress, an annual event In L’Hospitalet which draws over 100,000 people from all over the world.
Esperança is carved from a single massive cedar tree. The cedar was chosen by Gelabert as a symbol representing the circle of life and death (he planted a small Lebanon cedar tree close to the sculpture); it is a call to pray for the end of the war in the Middle East and thus also symbolizes hope. The totem is painted in vibrant colors in long sinuous lines drawing the eye ever upward.
This project is the first public permanent installation of a major sculptural work by Miquel Gelabert, which was on view February 19, 2016
at Plaça Europa in L’Hospitalet, Barcelona, Spain.
