The city of Tortosa, Spain, has been graced by a breathtaking ephemeral intervention: ‘Umbrales de Ensueño’ (Dream Arches), a profound installation by the multidisciplinary studio Else in collaboration with Luis Medina. Selected for the esteemed A Cel Obert festival, which is dedicated to activating the city’s rich architectural heritage, the work finds its home in the Patio de Sant Jordi i Sant Domènec—the central courtyard of the Reials Collegis complex, a stunning example of Renaissance architecture in Catalonia. This historical setting, defined by three tiers of rhythmic stone arcades, lends the space a palpable sense of material weight and temporal depth, creating an atmosphere where history is physically present.
Conceived under this year’s festival theme, “Dreams,” the Else studio has conceptually liberated the arch from its structural, stone-bound logic, reimagining it as something fleeting and immaterial. The intervention transforms the rigid architectural element into a threshold of pure light and air. Suspended delicately above the courtyard, the layers of the installation create a dreamlike field where the sharp reality of the Renaissance architecture is filtered, distorted, and gently blurred, inviting visitors to experience the space anew.
‘Umbrales de Ensueño’ is meticulously composed of multiple translucent curtains crafted from white reflective organza fabric. Spanning the open space, these veils form a subtle radial pattern, gathering towards one corner and fanning out towards the other. Crucially, arches of varying scales are precisely cut from the material—some monumental, reminiscent of grand palace gates, others small enough to frame a child, and a few simply small windows suspended in midair. This repeated motif reinforces the conceptual play between the solid, historical arches and their new, vaporous counterparts.
The layered arrangement ensures a complex visual experience. As one navigates the courtyard, sightlines slip and overlap; silhouettes flicker and dissolve within the overlapping Translucent Curtains. Clarity and blur rest side by side in the Else Design, challenging the viewer’s perception of depth and boundary. Each arch frames another behind it, creating a continuous, fragmented perspective that mirrors the logic of a dream, where recognition and uncertainty coexist within the structure of the Installation.
When a gentle breeze passes through the historic patio in Tortosa, Spain, the organza fabric stirs, momentarily stripping the cut arches of their rigidity. The curtains drift and fold with a slow, uncertain rhythm, the entire space beginning to move as its boundaries waver like reflections on water. In these moments, the arches in ‘Umbrales de Ensueño’ appear almost liquid, their outlines bending and melting in the shifting light—a fleeting slip where the solidity of the Architectural Heritage yields for an instant to the fluid nature of the dream. This sense of uncertainty is central to the project’s Art.
The installation masterfully catches and manipulates the available light with a rare delicacy. As the sun traverses the courtyard, the translucent curtains shift between luminous reflection and sheer translucence, transforming the air itself into a radiant field. Overlapping layers scatter light in subtle gradations, circulating brightness and shadow through the space until depth becomes uncertain. In this encounter, the new and the old, the solid stone and the Ephemeral Art, coexist—the breathing, dream-folded fabric of Else‘s Design is held within the monumental weight of the Renaissance architecture. Ultimately, like a dream, the finished ‘Umbrales de Ensueño’ offers no fixed route, only the desire to drift within a state that resists easy resolution.