Work Material

Screening of material from the work process of the film José Luis Guerin is producing in Vallbona as part of the exhibition Unknown City Beneath the Mist: New Images from Barcelona’s Peripheries. This will be followed by a conversation with the filmmaker. 

The Rec Comtal irrigation canal is a central element in the film made by José Luis Guerin in the neighbourhood of Vallbona, in the surroundings of La Ponderosa allotment area. The persistence of an agricultural production zone within the municipal territory prolongs the dream of a long-lost earthly paradise, raises the question of the possibility of reconnecting the countryside and the city, and ties in with current debates on environmental sustainability and food autonomy.

Is this some kind of pre-urban relic or a vision of the city of the future? Is it the blueprint for a new urban economy to come? Will progress culminate in a recovered paradise?

artist

José Luis Guerin

Barcelona, 1960

José Luis Guerin is one of the most internationally renowned Spanish filmmakers of his generation. Throughout the seventies and eighties, he made several works in 8 and 16 mm formats, and in 1983 he released his first feature film, Los motivos de Berta. He became especially popular after his film En construcción (2001), which was shot during the construction of the Rambla del Raval and is one of the essential documentaries of contemporary Barcelona and was awarded the Goya prize for best documentary film. He currently lives in Fontvieille, France.

read more