El Principal de Còrsega: a gallery-floor to experience art
Sònia Villegas, an art historian with an outstanding career at the Museu Picasso and the Fundació Joan Miró, has transformed her own flat into a unique gallery: El Principal de Còrsega.
In a city like Barcelona, where art is often perceived from the distance of large institutions, there are places that bring it closer, humanise it and return it to a more intimate scale. El Principal de Còrsegain the heart of Barcelona's Eixample district is one of these spaces: a stately home converted into an art gallery where the works are not only exhibited, but also integrated into everyday life.
"At El Principal de Còrsega art is not hung just to be looked at, but to be lived".
Behind this unique project is Sònia Villegaswho, after three decades as chief curator at museums such as the Museu Picasso and the Fundació Joan Miró, decided to open her home and her private collection to the public. His aim is to share his passion for art from a more personal and close perspective, as he understands that art merges with furniture and memories, creating a space full of character and intention where the works are not only observed, they are lived.
Located in a royal estate in the Eixample, El Principal de Còrsega maintains the essence of modernist architecture with its high ceilings, mouldings and hydraulic floors. These historical elements are harmoniously combined with a careful selection of contemporary works, objects with history and fresh flowers that Sònia renews weekly. The result is a warm and serene atmosphere that invites contemplation without solemnity.
An art gallery flat?
El Principal de Còrsega is a personal project that calls for a return to direct contact with art and artists. Inspired by the gallery flats that existed in Paris in the sixties and seventies, where meetings of different types and audiences took place, it proposes a way of approaching contemporary creation and collecting that is committed to the closeness between artists, their works and all those who want to get to know them in the private, even "secret" environment of a private home. For this reason, access is by invitation only or by appointment.
Its programme focuses mainly - though not exclusively - on senior artists with a long and consolidated career. In addition to solo and group exhibitions, the space hosts meetings, debates, talks, presentations and other activities that generate connections between artists, collectors and people interested in or simply attracted by culture in general.
We talked to Sònia about this project, her love of books, silence, gardens, and how art can inhabit and transform our homes.
Tell us about yourself and your work. Where did your vocation start? Any first memories?
In October 2024, after 30 years as chief curator of the Museu Picasso and the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona, I decided to open my own gallery flat, El Principal de Còrsega, to bring art closer to people in a more intimate and personalised way.
My vocation for art has existed since childhood. My father was a great lover of music, literature and history, and many of his friends were artists. I myself studied piano and always knew that I would go into art history. For me it was the natural choice, the only one in fact.
What do you find most satisfying about your work, and is there anything you are particularly proud of?
Undoubtedly, to bring art closer to people, to accompany them, to make it part of their lives as it is part of mine. One of the mottos of El Principal de Còrsega is Degas' phrase. And that is what I try to do every day.
Degas: "Art is not what you see, but what you make others see".
What is your creative process like, what are your sources of inspiration, any particular music while working?
I like to work in silence or, at most, with classical music or the sounds of the forest. I think silence is undervalued. Very often, ideas come to me while I'm walking, in moments of contemplation or even sleep. I always write them down by hand, in a notebook. I can't conceive of thinking digitally.
Favourite colour, book, film and record - in that order! ;D
Is your home a reflection of who you are? Tell us what it smells like, your favourite corner, your favourite decorative object or piece of furniture, if you treasure a collection... And if you have a pet, introduce it to us!
My houses are a true reflection of my professional and personal life. I have been collecting art for years and I love sculptures, illustrated books and paintings. In the Principal I always try to have fresh flowers, sometimes brought from our country house, and the scents I like are those of aromatic plants -salvia, lavender- and citrus fruits.
If you could buy anything right now and take it home, what would it be? Anything!
A work of art. It's the one thing I would never stop buying. It gets me.
A great plan at home always includes...
A good dinner made by my husband, with a good wine, and the company of my two children. And afterwards, a good film.
Do you have a signature dish?
I am a terrible cook, I admit it. But I am extremely lucky that my husband cooks wonderfully. Paella (his and that of some of the restaurants we like) is my favourite dish.
Where is your favourite place in your city and abroad?
In Barcelona, I love the few gardens in the centre: the Palau Robert, the Muñoz Ramonet gardens, Turó Park... and, of course, Parc Güell and the gardens of Montjuïc. Outside the city, I spend a lot of time in the countryside, in the Conca de Barberà, where the landscape surrounding the Monastery of Poblet seems to me to be the best in the world.
And abroad, I always travel to places with parks and gardens. I am fascinated by those in London, the English countryside, the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, Provence, Tuscany, the lakes of northern Italy... I also often go back to heritage cities with good museums and art centres: Madrid, Rome, Flanders, Portugal, the south of France...
Anything you want to tell us that we haven't asked you, speak now or forever hold your peace!
One of the best lessons I learned from my father is to always live the same way, whether things are going well or not. It's not about money, it's about time. That's the key: to have time.
