At a glance
A city square becomes a clock: one minute of sound every hour, folded into an archive you can travel through.
Why go
Spiral of Time changes how you experience one of Barcelona’s most active public spaces. Instead of documenting Plaça dels Àngels through photographs, Edwin van der Heide records its voices, skateboards, cleaning vehicles, weather and unexpected interruptions.
You'll see
Microphones installed on the façade of MACBA’s Research and Documentation Centre have been recording one minute of the square’s ambient sound every hour since July 17, 2024. Recording is scheduled to continue until July 2027.
Pace of visit
This is a focused installation that can comfortably be experienced in around 30 minutes. Allow longer if you want to compare several periods or listen to the accompanying 38-minute MACBA podcast.
Don't miss
The section dedicated to institutional critique, which examines the museum's own relationship with the surrounding Raval neighborhood and its urban history.
Artlovers Tip
See it while visiting MACBA—but don’t travel for it alone. This is a thoughtful and intelligent sound work rather than a spectacular immersive installation. Its rewards depend on curiosity, patience and a willingness to interact with the archive. Spend five minutes in Plaça dels Àngels before entering. Close your eyes and separate its different layers: wheels against stone, conversations, footsteps, traffic and the architecture’s echoes.
Inside the exhibition
Meet the artist
Description
Sound usually disappears at the instant it is produced. Spiral of Time resists that disappearance by collecting brief, regularly spaced fragments of Plaça dels Àngels and organising them into a growing archive.
The system records only one minute every hour rather than capturing the square continuously. These gaps are important: the work is not surveillance or an exhaustive documentary record. It is a sequence of samples from which listeners construct their own understanding of the place.
Spiral of Time
Artlovers relevance
Plan your visit
Hours & rating from Google
