In collaboration with Bendita Gloria, Santa & Cole updates the portrait of Gabriel Ordeig as a designer, artist, editor, and prominent figure of 1980s Barcelona through the reissue of his biography and a multifaceted exhibition. Gabriel Ordeig Cole, co-founder of Santa & Cole, was a multifaceted character whose trajectory, though tragically short, defied the boundaries between disciplines. His ingenuity took shape in lamps, chronicles, interior designs, and graphic works: an interplay of heterogeneous elements that remain impossible to separate. In all of them, one subtly yet undeniably perceives an attentive, intelligent, and intuitive gaze, born from his obsession with objects and living life to the fullest.

The Ordeig phenomenon could be summarized as a blend of functionalist transgression and Mediterranean sensuality. Or perhaps through the dualities of quality and warmth, sensuality and simplicity, serving as the guiding principles of a distinct ethic and aesthetic that he so decisively championed in his final stage as an editor. Yet the truth is that Ordeig’s vast creative drive makes it impossible to rely on a linear narrative to make sense of his memory, as he himself was porous, transversal, and literally undisciplined.

What logic can emerge from chaos? With this question in mind, design studio Bendita Gloria brilliantly reconfigures his portrait. The title of the new edition, Esferas y patatas. Retrato indisciplinado de Gabriel Ordeig [Spheres and Potatoes: An Undisciplined Portrait of Gabriel Ordeig], adopts the beautiful metaphor on the unpredictability of chance described by Salvador de Madariaga in a 1967 speech before the Society for Long Range Planning in London, translating it to Ordeig. Spheres and potatoes stand in opposition just as desire contrasts with reality, or as a seamless celestial plan confronts rough, nourishing daily management. Chance is presented not as absolute chaos, but as an ordered principle arising from the interaction of unpredictable factors.

Throughout the book, images and stories interweave in an insubordinate manner despite appearing random, offering a journey that invites a more impressionistic, unconventional discovery that effectively captures an entire era of Barcelona.