PHOTOGRAPHIC STORIES 1
24.01.2020 – 29.02.2020
Exhibition by Dolors Pena Buxó and Itziar González Virós
Opening, Friday 24th January at 8 p
in ACVIC. Centre d'Arts Contemporànies
I recognise the place: Plaça del Rei. Behind the scenes I glimpse the Palau del Lloctinent (the Lieutenant’s Palace) and the Palau Reial Major (Royal Palace). We are in Barcelona’s Ciutat Vella. In the Gothic Quarter. I also recognise my neighbour's white hat and jacket from the back, despite the fact that she's in the middle of the crowd in front. I can see more of what’s around me, than I can see of the centre.
In fact, I can see almost nothing of the man at whom everyone is looking, to whom everyone is listening, blurred as he is in a dense mist of words spoken into the wind. But, as though it were a deliberate spinning effect in the picture, what I do see is the mayoral candidate's face printed in a newspaper. Her photograph displays what many of us have been asking for a long time: Why make an upheaval in people's everyday space in order to replace it with this constructed stage of representativeness? We need nothing more than a permanent neighbourhood assembly, and reVolt in the middle of the plazas,self-organised, and with their own life and call to action. The sun illuminates the consciences of those who wish to see. Those who do not wish, make hats and cover their heads with electoral propaganda. Politics a la mode, prêt-à-porter policies.
Photography: Dolors Pena. Acte de la campanya electoral de Barcelona en Comú, Memòria Democràtica. Plaça del Rei de Barcelona (17-05-2015)
Dolors Pena Buxó (Vic, 1965). Daughter and granddaughter of photographers, the 92 Paralympic Games and later, her link with associations, social movements, 15M activism and her participation in the Citizen Parliament made her career as photographer and photojournalist. She collaborates with publications La Directa and Setembre.
Itziar González Virós (Barcelona, 1967). She is an architect and urban planner. Expert in citizen participation and cooperation in the urban context. Former Mayor of the Ciutat Vella District of Barcelona. Founding member of the Grup Impulsor del ParlaMent Ciutadà and director of the Institut Cartogràfic de la reVolta.
