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Plensa, Jaume - Alchemist
Identifier
029584
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Plensa, Jaume - Alchemist
In 2010, Plensa's Alchemist was installed in front of the Stratton Student Center, facing the main entrance of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The sculpture was donated anonymously on the occasion of MIT's 150th anniversary.
It is a large, hollow seated figure similar to other contemporary Plensa figures, except that it is composed of numerals and mathematical symbols.
The official line peddled by MIT is that this is to “ honor MIT's traditional STEM-focused teaching and research”. But Plensa produces sculptures based on numbers and letters when he wishes to acknowledge the influence of a book on him.
The Alchemist is a novel by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho that was first published in 1988. Originally written in Portuguese, it became a widely translated international bestseller. We have Paulo Coehlo on the site .
A description of the experience
