SPANISH NEWS: Junk room or contemporary take on Christmas: Barcelona nativity controversy

BARCELONA city council’s contemporary taken on the nativity scene has sparked a certain amount of controversy.

Rather than the usual recreations of Bethlehem, shepherds, the Three Kings and baby Jesus in a manger, the distinctly untraditional installation in the Catalan capital’s Sant Jaume plaza is made up boxes and crates of different sized filled with an odd assortment of Christmassy type stuff, plus items like old photographs and cutlery.

Artist Paula Bosch explained her €97,000 work “represents all the Christmas objects which we have kept.”

But judging by comments on social media, the junk room concept is not to everyone’s liking.

One wag said it reminded him of a house removal, while wondering whether the council had Diogenes syndrome, while others expressed the view a nativity should reflect the biblical story rather than try to make an artistic statement.

Commenting on Twitter, the president of the city council’s opposition Popular Party Josep Bou complained: “This is not a nativity, it is nothing. It is a load of stacked up boxes.