Who is the face in Jaume Plensa 61?

Plensa painstakingly chooses each of the people who lend their faces to his most emblematic sculptures: they are the famous heads, representations of young women with their eyes closed, that are admired worldwide. Who are they? Do they have names? And why does their expression convey serenity and inner peace?

Memory and future

Plensa decided to continue along the path of sculptural portraiture after completing the Crown Fountain project in Chicago in 2004, which featured a multitude of faces of private citizens.

Crown Fountain. Chicago, USA, 2004

From that moment on, Plensa opted to portray women, generally girls and teenagers, because he considers the female condition to be the common thread running through the history of humanity: “I believe that the future, the past and memory are feminine”.

A young face is a perfect representation of this notion of connecting tradition and future. But the artist also incorporates a crucial element into these figures: they always have a dreamy expression.

A gaze that actually exists

These sculptures are not abstract figures, but instead are based on a flesh-and-blood model. The artist interviewed each of his subjects before studying and photographing their faces.

Plensa is not aiming for a realistic portrait in this process, but rather seeks to reveal the inner world that we all have, even though we often forget that it exists. At the same time, Plensa manages to convey a sense of spirituality by elongating the figures: “They are faces that are meant to spark a moment of personal and intimate reflection”.

This is the case of Julia, the sculpture in Plaza de Colón in Madrid, and the spectacular Water’s Soul in New Jersey. 

Water's Soul. Nueva Jersey, USA, 2021.

And, of course, the one of a little girl called Mar, who Plensa chose exclusively for ARTIKA.

Who is Mar?

Our edition of Jaume Plensa 61 is housed in a sculpture-case that features a particularly special image: it is a face with her own name and an example of diversity. “Mar is a girl of peculiar beauty. She was born in China but lives in Madrid. I think she represents the global world perfectly”.

Jaume Plensa wanted Mar to symbolise the world in which we live, complex and in constant flux, where “origins, colours, traditions, cultures are mixed... it’s something extraordinary”.

Thus, Mar represents everything that makes us unique. At the same time, she reminds us that we are all part of the same rich and plural community. Her face, moreover, is set in a serene expression that invites introspection.

When you purchase a copy of Jaume Plensa 61, you become one of the privileged few to own an exclusive work by the artist, who designed the sculpture-case exclusively for ARTIKA.

Jaume Plensa 61

• Numbered edition, signed by the artist and limited to 2,998 copies.

• The case is an original serialised sculpture, created exclusively for this edition.​​​​​​​

• The Art Book reveals the creative process of the artist's creations, and the Study Book includes reproductions of his notebooks.