ARCHIVED - Yellow blob removed from Teatro Romea in Murcia as Town Hall gimmick backfires

The appearance of the installation was compared by bemused observers with vomit, pus and fungus

A controversial yellow blob which was installed by the Town Hall of Murcia on the main façade of the Teatro Romea in the centre of the city has been removed this week after two weeks of controversy, criticism and general puzzlement over why it had been put there in the first place.

The installation of the feature on the front of the theatre was apparently intended as a gesture to mark the status of Gastronomic Capital of Spain which has been awarded to Murcia for 2020, but it became apparent almost immediately that it was a far from popular choice. Descriptions on social media sites commonly featured words such as “vomit”, fungus, “pus”, “mould” and other less than favourable comparisons, while the Huermur group which lobbies for the protection of Murcia’s cultural and historical heritage lodged an official complaint with the Culture department of the regional government, pointing out that the façade of the theatre is protected as an Item of Cultural Interest.

Celebrating the removal of the “decoration” on Tuesday evening, when the 15-day permit for its presence expired, Huermur reiterated that the building is “not an advertising hoarding or a washing line for hanging new ideas on” and urged the Town Hall to remove other “inappropriate” items from the Puente Viejo, the main bridge over the River Segura in the city, and the Molinos de Río complex on the south bank. The platform group now intends to request information from the Town Hall regarding the costs involved in installing the object and removing it.

On the other hand, the Town Hall has responded to criticism by arguing that the yellow design was merely temporary and was only intended to attract people’s attention – which it certainly did, although probably not for the right reasons!

Less comprehensibly for most people, the agency Germinal & Brandon Love, which was responsible for the design, describes it as “a conceptualization of the aroma of our dishes, a smoke composed of the different elements of our cooking and our market garden: pots of aromatic plants, cutlery, saucepans … which seep through the walls to show on the outside the essence and familiarity of the interior of the thousands of kitchens which give warmth and meaning to our homes and our lives”. No comment!

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