23/11/2008 21' 16''
Xavier Basiana. De Vallvidriera a Sant Cugat del Vallès, 2007-2008

The hypothesis of a possible parallelism between the history of photography and Barcelona’s urban history is one of the themes underlying the museum's current exhibition Universal Archive. The condition of the Document and the Modern Photographic Utopia. Representations of the city, from the Universal Exhibition in 1888 to the Forum of Cultures in 2004, give off a sense of the use of photography as a "battlefield" in various struggles for the city, as well as the lack of images that show the situation of Barcelona today.

The series of works specially commissioned from a group of photographers in 2007 rounds off the exhibition and offers a kind of diagnosis and a way of sparking public debate on the need to find a new model and urban project. This survey has little to do with a topographic approach, focusing instead on identifying the changes and the continuities that can be traced through Barcelona's history.

Son[i]a interviews Jorge Ribalta, who curated the exhibition and was responsible for the concept of the survey, together with Joan Roca.








 

Son[i]aJorge Ribaltaexhibitionarchivephotography