At Michele Bajona's house
Michele Bajona is an architect and painter who splits his time between Barcelona and New York. With these coordinates, the outlook is wonderful... Imagine if I also tell you he is Italian. Imaginative, with very refined taste, a great conversationalist with a great sense of humour and a huge admirer of Le Corbusier...
Carles Bonnin He told us about him. They met over a drink in Cadaqués. Tables are always in short supply at the Marítim, and both of them are the sort of relaxed, open-hearted blokes who don't mind sharing a table with strangers. They hit it off famously, and that very evening, Michele decided to throw a party to celebrate having met.
Michele Bajona He is an architect and painter and splits his time between Barcelona and New York. With these coordinates, the picture is wonderful... Imagine further if I tell you he is Italian. Imaginative, with a very refined taste, a great conversationalist with a great sense of humour and a great admirer of Le Corbusier...
And that is precisely the house where he lives along with other artists and his partner Thelma Seguí, also an architect and photographer. Surrounded by few things, apparent simplicity, exquisite taste, and flowers glorious and magical plays of light that enter the living room and run right through the flat, of walls that echo with the laughter of Gradivinos...
She tells me it's a new urban tribe of artists who gather in her living room on Calle Gravina to plot and change the world —This is where things happen— He also tells me that you possess the best pizza dough recipe in the universe, the *Gradivina*, and that, like the myth of Gradiva, whoever eats it moves forward and can even walk through walls…
And one thing leads to another and so life goes on, happily some days, not so much on others, and we in the middle of the tide, searching for the permanent centre of gravity... In New York she recharges her batteries architecturising private residences, in Barcelona he unwinds by painting watercolours, searching for the perfect light of his admired Sorolla in the Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc.
Her works have been exhibited in group and solo shows in New York and Barcelona (there is currently an exhibition at the Italian Cultural Institute of Barcelona), and in his native Italy.
Recently, he has been awarded first prize for the best documentary video at the 54th Venice Biennale of Art, in the Italian pavilion, with a video tribute to Barcelona and its artists: Barcelona.
* Gradivina pizza base:
750g strong white flour
250g plain or wholemeal flour
25g fresh yeast (Levital)
500 ml of warm water
Mix the water with the yeast and flour. First add the strong flour, then, little by little and with your hands, the standard or wholemeal flour. You have to get your hands right into the dough, no holding back, and keep kneading with a lot of love and dedication until the dough comes away from your fingers.
When that happens, you can season it with a teaspoon of sugar, a tablespoon of fine salt and another of extra virgin olive oil. After all that effort, leave it to rest for a few hours so that it rises.
Divide the dough into 4 or 5 round portions and wrap them in a tea towel to rise for about two hours in a dry, warm place. Then, wrap them in cling film and freeze them if you are not going to use them straight away. When the time comes, defrost them at room temperature. As for teaching you how to make pizza dough… well, that's a different kettle of fish!
