In 2007, as part of the project Imatges metropolitanes de la nova Barcelona [Metropolitan Images of the New Barcelona] project, the MACBA asked a number of photographers to portray the ways of life in the modern-day city. Ahlam Shibli, who was part of the project, looked at the relationships that are established between people, almost all of them immigrants, who look after the elderly in the city. To this end, she got in touch with a number of home attendants for the purpose of portraying them in different everyday situations. The result, the photographic series Dependence, speaks for itself. Victor, from Ecuador, holds Francisco's cane so that he can write a note. Manin, from the Philippines, covers the living room furniture with sheets before Carmen and José Manuel go on vacation. Eugenia, from Argentina, sweeps Pilar and Oleguer’s living room floor. Thus, the project covers 29 scenes captured in different neighborhoods of Barcelona in the year 2007. The project focuses on how people are displaced in a globalised economy, and how relations of power between the middle and lower classes are maintained, albeit in new forms.
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