This gigantic black aluminium wave, which, at almost three tons, occupies the MACBA podium, is a perfect illustration of the geometric interpretation that the Basque sculptor Jorge Oteiza made of ocean waves. As a work of public art, it was designed to be shared in a public space, to interact with natural phenomena, with the urban environment and with the people who frequent it throughout the day. 

In 1998, just three years after the inauguration of MACBA, Oteiza was commissioned to produce a work for the Museum. He knew immediately that what he wanted was to devise a piece that would establish a dynamic dialogue with the rational and rectilinear forms of Richard Meier’s white building. A building that, due to its orientation, receives sunlight from morning to dusk. And so, this black polyhedron with concave, convex, undulating and at the same time cutting forms, took its place in front of MACBA, where it traces with the building an incessant game of reflections, light and shadow. 

La ola (The Wave) was produced in the workshop of the architect and sculptor Pere Casanovas, in Parets del Vallès. The starting point was a bronze model, just 5 cm tall, made by Oteiza in 1957. To transfer this miniature to its new monumental scale, it was necessary to design five more models and a sixth, full-scale wooden one.

Standing next to La ola, hearing the continuous sound of skateboards crashing against the cement ramp, we echo the words that Filipp Shamshin – photographer and skater – shares in the documentary Three Works and a Square: ‘When you see it, you see it like an ocean wave. And skateboarding has a lot in common with surfing.’