In Catalonia, the càntir is so popular that it has its own museum: the Museu del Càntir in Argentona, with a collection of over 4500 pieces, the richest of which were decorated by Pablo Picasso. This terracotta container, with a handle and two mouths – a larger one for filling and another, narrower, used to pour out the liquid, usually wine or water – is an anonymous designer object dating back to ancient times, the shape of which has remained unchanged over the millennia. In addition to wonderfully performing the task for which it was created – cooling drinks by exploiting the porosity of the clay (there is even a mathematical formula that explains this mechanism, which is only apparently simple), it embodies the spirit of Barcelona, particularly that convivial disposition that we also find in its literary detectives, from Petra Delicado to her deputy Fermín Garzón, always willing to sit down to a meal even in the midst of an investigation, to the investigator-gourmet Pepe Carvalho.
The star of this Catalan material culture is the raw material used by sixteen resident artists in and around the city, called on by the Barcelona Centre de Disseny and a series of local institutions, curated by designer Júlia Esqué. The project, called Inspired in Barcelona: Terra Rossa, appeared for the first time at the Milan design week in 2024, and was displayed throughout the autumn and winter at the Disseny Hub, the design and decorative arts museum in Barcelona, before continuing its journey. The sixteen artists and designers involved intervened in the archetypal form of the càntir in different ways, before and after firing, turning the traditional jug into a contemporary piece through design, the application of glazes and paints, or adding ropes, ribbons and different fabrics that conjure up the features of the Catalan culture.
“We set up a varied group of people working in product design, illustration, jewellery, art and gastronomy,” the curator explains. “We were interested in understanding how the different backgrounds and professions of each one could influence the work done on this object.” All the participants received the same request: “Each participant had five càntirs or botijos (as they are called in Castilian) at their disposal; they were not required to redesign them but to work on them without altering their function or original size by more than 20%, while the red terracotta colour had to remain mostly unaltered. The càntir also reflects the Catalan identity through its symbolic meaning, and the artists, along with the master potter Eloi Bonadona and Carles Llarch, who created the 300-litre wine jar that is part of the installation, helped to narrate the cultural and traditional elements through their works.”
