Balmes Residence is a jewel of the Art Nouveau architecture from the beginning of the 20th Century, the heyday of the Catalan industrial bourgeois. Its interior combines spectacular mouldings and frescos on the ceilings, tiled floors with coloured mosaics and stained glassed windows with religious motifs.
In the hall of the hotel, there is an exhibition of a collection of pieces of art from sub-Saharan Africa, mainly from the Sudanese region, the vast Central African region that reaches from the Atlantic to the Red Sea.
It consists of masks and three-dimensionally carved sculptures from wood used by the majority of ethnic groups in Africa, representations of their mythological beings and ancestors, spirits and supernatural forces that exercised power over the community.
Ethnic and Tribal Art
This fascinating collection includes masks from the soninké and baulé tribes, as well as ibeji statuettes from the yoruba groups, anthropomorphic pieces which should go in pairs of different sexes, which represent sacred spirits with prayers and offerings. A further highlight are the kota reliquaries, stylized figures made of wood covered in copper or brass used, as a spiritual protector for the dead.
Just like the Hotel Balmes, the interiors of the rooms exhibit part of the African Art collection. Most remarkable is the important representation of the tuareg tribe art.
The Collector
In addition to being a hotelier, Jordi Clos is an Egyptologist, collector and art patron. He presides over the Fundación Arqueológica Clos and the Egyptian Museum in Barcelona, the largest private collection of Egyptian art on display to the public in Europe, and for more than twenty years has financed archaeological excavations in Egypt.
Jordi Clos
President of the Derby Hotels Collection
