Solo exhibition at Cirurgias Urbanas, July/September 2010, Oporto (Portugal)
Particularidades/Particularities is a work that uses photography as a medium to reflect on the contemporary context of Barcelona. An alphabet was created from photographs of alphabetic letters captured in the streets of the city. This alphabet is used to reproduce selected sentences found in the public urban landscape of Barcelona.
Barcelona, capital of Catalonia. Cosmopolitan city, halfway between the mountain and the sea. Populated by immigrants and crowded with tourists.
VOLEM UN BARRI DIGNE – We want a decent neighbourhood – Signs hanging on the balconies of the old buildings, in the centre neighbourhoods of Barcelona. Written in Catalan, they claim responsibility dto the city’s central power. They express the displeasure of the community by the presence of delinquents, frequent robberies, illegal street sale of alcohol, merchandise and drugs.
VISC (A) BARCELONA – I live in Barcelona and viva Barcelona – The phrase has double meaning. Campaign written in Catalan, made by the Ayuntamiento (City Hall), with the aim of encouraging the pride of living in Barcelona. The public investment in this slogan has been subject to harsh criticism from taxpayers.
LA BELLEZA ES TU CABEZA – The beauty is your head – Sentence written in Spanish, in graffitis trough out the city. Repeated by several authors, although the original idea remains anonymous.
CATALUNYA IS NOT SPAIN – Catalonia is not Spain – Slogan printed in t-shirts and large posters, to explain to tourists the claim of Catalonia as an autonomous nation in relation to the Spanish State.
YOU ARE DESTROYING BARCELONA, TOURISTS GO HOME – You’re destroying the city, tourists go home – Signs hanging on the balconies of buildings, in one of the most degraded and most touristic areas of Barcelona. The local population relates the increment of insecurity in the neighbourhood (robberies and drug sales in the street), with the arrival of tourists in mass.
Filipa Pontes 