Casa Natal Salvador Dalí, a new cultural facility where you can discover the most intimate Dalí

The Salvador Dalí Birthplace is now a reality. On October 20, the doors of the new facility opened, in an institutional event held in front of the facade of the modernist building at Carrer Monturiol, 6. Eduard Bech, director of the Casa Natal, welcomed the same space where the young notary Salvador Dalí Cusí set up his notary, and where he would end up marrying and raising a family.

Salvador Dalí, artist and universal genius, would be born some time later in one of the rooms on the first floor. Bech has indicated that during the genesis of the project it was possible to ascertain that "there was no other space in the world that interpreted the figure of Dalí. It was therefore a unique opportunity to make possible in Figueres this reference space to understand Dalí in all his complexity". Miquel Noguer, president of the Provincial Council of Girona, wanted to point out that "today is a day of joy for Figueres and for the whole country. We must celebrate the launch of the Casa Natal, a first-rate cultural space, and new pole of cultural and tourist attraction in our country, which has been possible thanks to the extension and collaboration between administrations.

Natàlia Garriga, Minister of Culture, highlighted "The space we are inaugurating today is an opportunity to get to know Dalí more intimately: the man before the character, and at the same time, the man who makes us understand the character. We value projects that, like this one, make heritage more understandable for all audiences, because we want everyone to be able to get a complete idea of what they are seeing."

Jordi Masquef, mayor of Figueres, declared "Today is a day that marks the history of the city. It culminates a project that has been in the making for almost 30 years, and that has passed through the mandates of six mayors. La Casa Natal responds to Dali's vocation to become global from the ultra-local. This is the great tribute that Figueres owed to its most illustrious citizen, Salvador Dalí, who projected Figueres to the world."

Finally, Raquel Sánchez, Acting Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda of the Government of Spain, has affirmed that Figueres is an extraordinary city, historically a gateway to modernity, in France, in Europe. "The inauguration of the Casa Natal means that Figueres is once again positioned as a pawn for the projection of the figure of genius in the world. We celebrate not only the opening of the space but also the figure of one of the most iconic artists in our history".

The intimate Dalí and the Dalí show (“Where it all began”)

The importance of the first years of family life in Dalí's personality is widely documented, and this personality is completely linked to his art, as explained during the visit, which allows us to delve deeper into the genius' family ties: the conflicted relationship with his father , which will end up disinheriting him and kicking him out of the house; with the mother, Felipa Domènech, who would die when Dalí was only 16 years old; with his sister Anna Maria, four years younger than him, with whom he would maintain a close relationship until 1929, the year Dalí met Gala.

La Casa Natal talks about the intimate life and the public life of Salvador Dalí. Of intimate life, in the same spaces that saw him born and grow. The rest of the building presents the public and media life of the genius (the many performances, the work with Hitchock and Walt Disney, his relationship with the media, etc.). Without leaving out the context of Figueres at the beginning of the 20th century and the influence and importance of the geography of Empordà in his life and artistic career.

La Casa Natal is the first cultural facility born with the desire to explain the person and character of Dalí, hence the need to explain Where it all began and From Figueres to the world, which are the claims of the project.

An immersive museum space, which appeals to the senses of the visitor The drafting of the museum project has been carried out by the UTE Transversal Varis arquitectes, headed by Dani Freixes. It has been conceived as an opportunity to better understand and experience Dalí from multiple facets: personal, artistic, writer, thinker, 'performer' and lover of science.

The Casa Natal Salvador Dalí is a unique museum space, which allows visitors to delve into Dalí's life. It does so by becoming the protagonist of the story. The visit goes beyond the physical tour, it wants to be a journey through time in which the story comes to life and the visitor must let himself be carried away by the sensations that challenge him. The guiding thread of the visit to the Casa Natal, lasting one hour, is an inner dialogue between two voices, which will accompany the visitor through an audio guide in 4 languages (Catalan, Spanish, English and French). On the one hand, a voice that evokes Dalí in the first person, based on fragments of his thoughts, writings, quotes, interviews and statements. On the other, a narrating voice. To accompany the first and facilitate the requirements of languages, circulation, mobility and orientation within the center, there is a locution that guides the visitor along the route, and at the same time allows the interpellation with the visitor, provoking their curiosity or complicity and, above all, it helps to explain what Dalí cannot explain in first person, or everything that others say about him. You can visit the different floors, the mezzanine being the one that preserves some of the most emblematic spaces of Dalí's childhood. Among them, the room where he was born.