united visual artists animates gaudí’s casa batlló facade through embodied motion

matt clark brings united visual artists’ language to casa batlló

Casa Batlló unveils Hidden Order, a monumental projection mapping by Matt Clark, founder of United Visual Artists, presented as a free public event on Gaudí’s facade. For the first time, the annual mapping commission also moves indoors, inaugurating a new second-floor space with Beyond the Facade, a site-specific exhibition that extends the project past the street.

Conceived as a large-scale audiovisual performance, Hidden Order transforms Casa Batlló’s facade through cycles of light, movement, and sound. Clark approaches Gaudí’s architecture as an active system shaped by geometry, natural laws, and constant transformation. The title echoes L’ordre invisible, the official motto of Gaudí Year 2026, pointing to the idea that apparent chaos often conceals deeper structures. ‘Gaudí once said that the straight line belongs to man, and the curve to God… I’ve always been drawn to the hidden systems beneath the surface—those structures that quietly shape the world around us.’ Clark notes.

The experience is further intensified by a live performance by choreographer and dance artist Fukiko Takase, activating the facade in real time and tightening the feedback loop between body, building, and public space.

Clark collaborated with the dance artist, recording her movements through motion-capture technology. Her body becomes a generative element within the projection, multiplied and transformed into dynamic visual structures that appear to grow directly from the facade. Takase’s choreography was developed through direct physical engagement with Casa Batlló, responding to its curves, textures, and spatial rhythm, treating the building as a partner.

hidden order unfolds as an interior journey

An original score by composer Daniel J. Thibaut binds image, movement, and architecture into a single performative experience. Developed in close dialogue with Clark and Takase’s choreography, the composition draws on geometry and natural patterns, shifting from restrained pulses to more expansive sequences. Sound is not used illustratively,  but structurally, allowing the facade to ‘find its own voice’ as light, motion, and audio operate together over time.

Opening in parallel with the mapping, Beyond the Facade marks the launch of Casa Batlló’s contemporary art exhibition space. Conceived as an interior continuation of Hidden Order, the exhibition leads visitors on a gradual journey from daylight into darkness, tracing rhythms of day and night, order and disorder. Through light studies, motion-based projections, and kinetic sculpture, the British artist slows the tempo, offering what he describes as ‘a more reflective counterpoint to the facade mapping… an opportunity to look more closely at the ideas and processes behind the work.’

A key reference of the concept is Ramon Llull, the 13th-century Majorcan philosopher whose diagrammatic systems sought to reveal the hidden order of the world through logic and geometry. The connection situates Clark’s practice within a longer lineage of thinkers who, like Llull and Gaudí, understood nature as an intelligible system.

a civic spectacle activating gaudí’s legacy

Now in its fifth edition, Casa Batlló’s annual mapping series has become a major public event, drawing 110,000 spectators in 2025 alone. Previous commissions by Refik Anadol, Sofia Crespo, and Quayola have reinterpreted the facade through digital and generative practices. While United Visual Artists has produced permanent public artworks worldwide, Hidden Order marks the studio’s first exploration of projection mapping. ‘We see the mapping as a gift to the city—an open moment of encounter with a living World Heritage site,’ shares Gary Gautier, General Director of Casa Batlló.

The project forms part of Casa Batlló Contemporary, the ongoing program of the institution dedicated to commissioning new work in dialogue with Gaudí’s legacy. The year 2026 marks the centenary of Gaudí’s death, officially designated Gaudí Year 2026 by the Generalitat of Catalonia and the Government of Spain, and coincides with Barcelona’s role as World Capital of Architecture. Hidden Order and Beyond the Facade treat Gaudí’s work as a living framework, one that continues to generate new forms of artistic thinking today.‘Gaudí’s work is already alive. Casa Batlló Contemporary exists to create the conditions for that legacy to continue expanding through contemporary artists, for the world of today.’ explains María Bernat, Director of Casa Batlló Contemporary.