Using Monopoly as a pattern, my intention is making a Barcelona portrait reflecting how changes that it’s experimenting day-to-day coexist with formerly remnants
more... Monopoly was created in the USA at the beginning of the XX Century. As its name suggests, the objective is owning the whole of the properties of the board. Depending on dices scoring, players fall in pieces of land they can buy and construct or, in case they have an owner, paying him for passing through. From the beginning, I found a great similarity with the present situation in the World and in my own city.
Using this game as a pattern, my intention is making a portrait of Barcelona to reflect how changes that it’s experimenting day-to-day coexist with formerly remnants. For that, I’ve mounted a new version of its Barcelona edition, replacing the corresponding squares by photographs of the places that appear in the game.
My family moved to Barcelona when I was a child, and I’ve been living here since then. I’ve seen it evolving and changing, properly in some aspects but not as well in others. Progress is always something positive and, from ’92 Olympic Games, Barcelona has tried to be among the most modern and avant-garde capitals, with all the pros and the cons.
Few things remain from what my family found upon arrival. The gradual city progress and the infrastructure improvement have been important, but the loss of a part of its identity is also patent, especially from the massive affluence of tourists that, despite providing an economical profit, have caused that certain lifelong business decided to turn the traditional into a kitsch attraction for them.
We’ve to add that crisis arrival has made that a great number of emblematic establishments had to move or close, to open in their place some business of low quality or hung a for sale sign.
So now our beautiful city is a mixture of luxury shops for wealthy people and tourists, another more modest for the middle class, and closed shutters of empty stores. In spite of that, if you’re sufficiently observant, you may still discover some formerly details that fight to survive at all costs.