Auditing the Creative Process, in pictures

29/10/2014. [VIDEO] Fundación Telefónica [MAD] Spain. 29.10 > 1.03.2015
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA.

Yesterday we presented this exhibition that has now opened its doors to the public. An exhibition you not to be missed, where a superb cook does not speak of cuisine, or yes, and talk focuses on creativity. A highly recommended exposure for students, teachers and the general public who is interested in learning more about creativity. Do you think that creativity can be taught, can be learned, it can grow ...? These are some of the questions the exhibition raises and tries to answer with Ferran Adrià.

Auditing the Creative Process, in pictures. Fundación Telefónica, 2014. Photography © Fernando Maquieira. Image courtesy of the Fundación Telefónica.

Auditing the Creative Process, in pictures. Fundación Telefónica, 2014. Photography © Fernando Maquieira. Image courtesy of the Fundación Telefónica.

Map of the creative process. Image © Bestiario. Image courtesy of the Fundación Telefónica.

Auditing the Creative Process, in pictures. Fundación Telefónica, 2014. Photography © Fernando Maquieira. Image courtesy of the Fundación Telefónica.

We report today the first images about the exhibition and Ferran Adrià (images, below)

What is needed to create?

Can the creative process be audited? These are some of the questions answered by Ferran Adrià. Auditing the creative process, the first exhibition by the Catalan chef in Madrid, his biggest to date and the first one to focus on creative processes. Three years after closing elBulli and taking gastronomy to a level it had never reached before, the international award-winning chef unveils his creative process and the keys to the success of the restaurant at Cala Montjoi.

Ferran Adrià: Auditando el proceso creativo, which can be seen free at the Espacio Fundación Telefónica from 29 October to 1 March, is a complete immersion into the creative universe of Adrià and his team. It is not an exhibition on cooking, but rather a journey through the successful creative process of elBulli. A success based on constant renovation, based on innovative and creative guidelines, characteristics that made it into a worldwide benchmark, and not just in the world of cuisine.

Almost 1000 m² dedicated to reflecting on the creative process and the interpretation of the elBulli model, and which seek to surprise the visitor and invite them to create and define their own creative profile.

From large murals, to hundreds of drawings done by Adrià himself, along with objects and tools emblematic of elBulli, and even a recreation of the restaurant and the kitchen where the 1846 dishes that make up the history of this inimitable restaurant were prepared.

There are also immersive audiovisual projections and animations that help dissect and interpret this creative universe and invite the visitor into the chef's mind, and an exhibition format with artistic installations that acknowledge the network structures of his great friend and the precursor to British pop art, Richard Hamilton, who never missed the opportunity for a gastronomic rendezvous at Cala Montjoi. Hamilton said of his cuisine that "looking at and tasting the succession of dishes on the menu at elBulli is an experience that is as aesthetic as looking at a painting"

A multidisciplinary team has worked for over a year to recreate this creative universe, under the coordination of Adrià himself.

"Creativity means not copying": the origin of the elBulli revolution

To understand this change in Adrià's career we need to go back to 1987, when during a stage Adrià did on the Côte d'Azur, the great French chef, Jacques Maximin told him that "creativity means not copying". That sentence was the the start of a revolutionary change in the kitchen of elBulli. Adrià left the recipe books behind and went down his own path, which changed the way cooking is understood and tasted. Since then, Adrià started to question the established limits. Why can't ice cream be hot? Who said you can't mix sweet and savoury? Out of this came the image that was chosen to represent the exhibition, a drawing he did of the word WHY?

For 25 years, from 1987 to 2011, the team at the restaurant in Cala Montjoi worked relentlessly with the aim of making the language of cuisine evolve and find its own essence, always seeking to be as disruptive as possible. ElBulli created a section dedicated exclusively to creativity. There was the meat section, the fish section, starters, desserts and... the creativity section.

When elBulli closed in 2011, this task continued through the elBullifoundation, through which Adrià and his team have dedicated themselves to investigating and continue experimenting with their own discipline. They have come up with a "formula of creativity", taking elBulli as an example, which aims to serve as a model for other disciplines and a tool for self-analysis for anyone to find their own method. They specify that it is not a unique model, but it is a valid model for those who want to improve the output and efficiency of their business, company or office.

Ferran Adrià: Auditing the creative process is the first result of the work of elBulliDNA, a multidisciplinary team of around 10 people who, from their headquarters at elBulliLab in Barcelona, study and decipher the creative process, and who will maintain a dialogue with elBulli1846 in Cala Montjoi.