"I return to read, with interest and pleasure, the text by Josep Quetglas on the German Pavilion at the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition, a work that established the stature of architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe [...] The flashes of lucidity that illuminate the complex scene in a text like this do not aim to convince the reader of a specific thesis; on the contrary, they engage the reader with the text and compel them to read at a measured pace, discovering moments of clarity throughout that bring them closer to the drama of Mies. A drama that may not have been resolved even after crossing the Atlantic. Reading Quetglas’s text, and mindful of the aforementioned flashes, one appreciates this way of viewing the new role of the critic,” writes Rafael Moneo in the new prologue to El horror cristalizado by Josep Quetglas, written specifically for this fourth, revised, and expanded edition, which was overseen by the eminent professor, curator, and researcher Guillermo Zuaznabar.
“Its form has never ceased to gather and cast off reflections from various sources since then. To what extent?” asked Josep Quetglas in the greeting he wrote to present this book more than thirty years ago, referring to its successive iterations—first as a lecture, then as an article, until it crystallized into the definitive text. Definitive? Since then, these pages have never ceased to reflect the gaze with which both readers and the author himself approach it, perhaps as an echo of the ambiguous and elusive nature of the pavilion itself.
