2025 Casa Batlló Light Show: Technology and Art Illuminate Barcelona

On February 1 and 2, 2025, Casa Batlló (Casa Batlló), the most fantastical building by Gaudí and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Barcelona, Spain, once again amazed the world with a stunning light show. As an important annual cultural event in Barcelona, this visual feast was already in its fourth edition. The 2025 light show was deliberately scheduled during the Chinese New Year. The two-day show attracted over 110,000 citizens and tourists to watch on-site. The first show on the first day was broadcast live for one hour on Catalan television TV3, achieving a 12.9% audience share nationwide in Spain, with over 220,000 viewers. Nearly 300 media outlets and television stations worldwide reported on this artistic event. European and American media such as Spain’s El País and La Vanguardia, the UK’s Financial Times, and the US’s AD magazine conducted exclusive interviews with the project leader and the artist. Social media content and interactions related to the light show reached 12.7 million.

This light show is part of Casa Batlló's artistic program "The Heritage of Tomorrow." The project annually invites world-class artists to reinterpret Gaudí's classic works from a contemporary perspective, combining cutting-edge art and technology to give this UNESCO World Heritage Site a new lease on life. In 2025, the project continued its collaboration with the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) exhibition, transforming Casa Batlló into a pioneering space where technology and art merge.

This year's light show was created by renowned Italian digital artist Quayola. His work "Arborescent" draws inspiration from the natural forms in Gaudí's creations, using advanced algorithms and generative visual technology to project dynamic tree-like structures onto the undulating facade of Casa Batlló. These tree-like patterns seem to grow organically, intertwining with the architectural elements and simulating the swaying motion of plants in the wind, giving the building a sense of life. The work is an exploration of the intersection between natural forms, art, robotics, and technology.

Quayola said in an interview: "The core of 'Arborescent' is to explore the boundary between nature and the artificial. My goal is to create a visual experience that is both familiar and entirely new through digital technology. Being able to present this work on such an iconic building as Casa Batlló was an extraordinary experience."

This light show not only provided visual impact but also incorporated original music composed by Quayola himself. The soundtrack blends traditional instrumentation with algorithmically generated music, synchronized with the rhythm of the light and shadows through software exclusively developed by the artist, offering the audience an immersive audio-visual experience.

Gary Gautier, CEO of Casa Batlló, said: "Quayola perfectly aligns with our philosophy: he merges the classic with the modern, interpreting nature from a unique perspective and aesthetic. Moreover, his work is sculptural, ideally suited to enhancing a facade as rich in relief and symbolism as Casa Batlló’s. Seeing the Casa Batlló light show so successful fills me with immense excitement. This show has become Barcelona’s most anticipated annual spectacle and one of the most beautiful gifts we can give to Barcelona."

Casa Batlló holds facade projection events every year, having previously invited internationally renowned artists, including:

- 2023: AI artist Refik Anadol

- 2024: Bio-artist Sofía Crespo

- 2025: Digital algorithm artist Quayola

This series of collaborations demonstrates Casa Batlló's ongoing exploration of the fusion of art and technology, offering audiences continuously innovative visual experiences.

Living Architecture

On May 7, 2023, digital artist Refik Anadol once again amazed the world with his work "Living Architecture," presenting Gaudí's architectural legacy in a new digital art form on the facade of Casa Batlló. This Casa Batlló light show attracted 47,000 viewers, becoming a major cultural event at the time. Using data and artificial intelligence technology, Anadol transformed Gaudí's artistic language into a flowing digital landscape, giving the building a dynamic visual effect as if it were alive, offering the audience an unprecedented immersive experience.

At a Christie's auction on May 10, "Living Architecture: Casa Batlló" was sold as an NFT work for $1.38 million, becoming the first successfully auctioned NFT digital artwork from a Spanish museum and an important milestone in Spanish digital art.

"Living Architecture" is the fourth digital work Anadol created exclusively for Casa Batlló. After collecting vast amounts of visual data on Gaudí's architecture, Refik created the installation "Gaudí’s Consciousness World," leading people into Gaudí's endless world of inspiration through digital presentation. "Gaudí’s Consciousness World" is currently on permanent display to all visitors in the immersive exhibition space Gaudí Cube at Casa Batlló.

Structures of Being

In February 2024, renowned Argentine artist Sofía Crespo presented a light show titled "Structures of Being" on the facade of Casa Batlló, attracting over 95,000 viewers. This visual feast, themed around natural elements, integrated Crespo's unique understanding of biodiversity and successfully combined architecture with digital art, offering the audience an unforgettable experience.

Crespo's work is known for exploring the complexity and diversity of the natural world. In this light show, she used advanced projection technology to transform the facade of Casa Batlló into a vibrant canvas, showcasing the dynamic evolution of various biological forms and structures. Viewers were captivated by these lifelike images, as if transported into a fantastical natural world.