As soon as visitors enter the CaixaResearch Institute, before reaching the laboratories or offices, they encounter five enormous steel plates arranged in the shape of a pentagon. Depending on where it is viewed from, the work seems to open, close or even move. There is no single viewpoint from which to understand it; it changes as you move around it. This is Pentagon in the Opposite Direction to the Clock, a sculpture created by Richard Serra in 1986 and part of the ”la Caixa” Foundation Contemporary Art Collection. 

This approach to sculpture runs throughout Richard Serra’s career. Born in San Francisco in 1938, the artist worked in steel mills while studying literature and fine arts. That experience shaped the way he created. Serra placed industrial materials such as steel at the heart of a body of work that explores weight, gravity and the physical relationship between people and space. His sculptures are not intended to be contemplated from a distance; they invite us to move around them, experience their scale and allow them to transform the way we perceive a place. 

At the CaixaResearch Institute, the work has already begun to have this effect and has become a talking point among those who work here. Everyone has found something different in it, and this diversity of interpretations says a great deal about both the work itself and the way we understand science. 

For Beatriz del Valle, lab manager in Dr Gabriel Rabinovich’s laboratory, the sculpture speaks of balance. She observes how each piece depends on the others to support the whole and sees a parallel with biomedical research. “In science, it is very important to find a balance between different disciplines in order to find a solution to a problem.” 

This dialogue between the individual parts and the whole also appears in the interpretation of Nuno Moreno, Director of Technology, although from a strictly scientific perspective. “It looks like an IgM pentamer, a large molecule that helps the body fight infections in the early stages of the immune response. It is like a group of antibodies.” 

Alicia Raya, Lab Officer, also looks at the sculpture through a scientific lens, although it brings something different to mind for her. “It reminds me of a centrosome, with those precise circular panels that look as if they are about to rotate.” 

That sense of movement is also central to the interpretation of Olga Rodríguez, Director of Operations, who sees the work as an image of progress. “When I look at the work, I see forward movement, like the spokes of a wheel turning and opening up a path. The same kind of movement that science and research represent.” 

For Helena Soler, Head of the Technical Secretariat, the experience is more emotional. “It makes me think of a whirlwind full of life.” She connects it with the rhythm of the institute, with everything that has happened since it opened and everything still to come. “Science is exactly that: a whirlwind that draws you in without you even realising it, sparks your curiosity and makes you want to know more.” 

The idea that the same reality can be viewed from different perspectives is precisely what Jose del Vas highlights. “For me, the work represents perspective and unity: how different points of view can transform an object, a concept or a piece of work into something better, more relevant and more powerful.” It is a reflection that resonates with our vision of research, built on collaboration and the exchange of ideas. 

The interpretations are very different, yet they all seem to converge around a few common ideas. Mireia Castanys, Associate Director, sums them up in three words: “Balance, order and simplicity.” 

We do not know what each visitor will see when they stop in front of Pentagon in the Opposite Direction to the Clock. What we do know is that, since its arrival, the work has become part of our everyday life and reminds us that science, like art, can also be understood in many different ways.