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The Freedom of Wild Spaces

Summer at MACBA (2)

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Xavier Ribas, 1994 - 1997, Sin título (Duchas). Serie: "Domingos"

‘Marginal spaces are the most alien to order, they are the wildest spaces’, explains Xavier Ribas in reference to the photographic series Diumenges (Sundays), made between 1994 and 1997, in post-Olympic Barcelona. The series features the human uses of the peripheral spaces of the city, those that are not considered useful. ‘Many of those spaces were leisure spaces. Weekends were their peak time. The idea of Sunday is also a recurring idea in popular culture and everyday life: leisure, the day of celebration.’ Marginal spaces where there is no architectural programme to guide their use and, therefore, the level of spontaneity and freedom is greater. ‘I’m interested in the diffused city, when it’s no longer a street but its not a field either’, explains Ribas. ‘Although by intent the series is not autobiographical, it does remind me of childhood, space, playing in the street and an experience of the periphery as an open space full of possibilities. A bit like what Albert Camus says about the city of Algiers.’ With this anthropological approach, Ribas offers us an alternative view of the official image of the Barcelona brand. You can listen to him here.

FONS ÀUDIO #22 – Xavier Ribas – Xavier Ribas

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