An Oceanic Feeling
An Oceanic Feeling
GLOBALISATION AND THE POLITICS OF SUBALTERN RESISTANCE IN MARITIME DISTRICTS
Workshop conducted by The Green Parrot and Fundació Antoni Tàpies.
Programme developed as part of the 4Cs European Project: From Conflict to Conviviality through Creativity and Culture
Presentation by the collective OPAVIVARÁ! © Fundació Antoni Tàpies
Barcelona maritime conflict: the maritime conflict in Barcelona is located in the Barceloneta neighbourhood. It is an example of the transformation of sea economy in a urban district. Changes experienced by the Barceloneta speaks of a new power emerging from the sea (the opaque and hidden economies related to the Industrial Ports). One obvious consequence is the disappearance of a productive model linked to the harbour and its traditional activities. Its substitution is by the tourist industry as well as by the industrial harbour.
The goal of the workshop was to approach several aspects of the Sea Conflict. The idea was to reflect about sea areas problematics with the people involved into the conflict and with the people who lives directly this situation (neighbours, dockers, street illegal vendors, the collective of the old fisherman, artisans, etc).
Conceptual context
We have organized this workshop into the exhibition of Allan Sekula framework. Allan Sekula (Erie, 1951 – Los Angeles, 2013) is one of the most important figures in modern photography of the second half of the twentieth century. His work focuses on a critique of the links that photography has always maintained with the economy, work and the politics of representation. Allan Sekula. Collective Sisyphus will be this artist’s first individual exhibition in Spain. The Fundació Antoni Tàpies will show two main areas of his work in which Sekula observes and analyses the impact of maritime economy on the incipient globalisation of the 1990s, as well as the new moral premises imposed by neoliberalism at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Physical context: All the activities were related with the sea, its economies, the touristification and the gentrification of the Barceloneta. We have organized all the programme activities between the Barceloneta neighborhood and the Museum in order that the collectives affected by the problem being active agents of the activities of the workshop. It affects the outcomes because we have moved most of the activities outside the museum.
Centre Cívic de la Barceloneta
Municipal equipment at the service of the neighborhood of La Barceloneta that works for the promotion and cultural diffusion attending to two lines of specialization: dance and the visual arts.
Cap a Mar
An organization born in a fishermen's family in Barceloneta, and as heirs of this tradition, we want to preserve and publicize the cultural heritage of our trade, often forgotten in our city. We vindicate our origin, the emblematic Mediterranean seafaring neighborhood of Barceloneta.
Organització d'Estibadors Portuaris de Barcelona
It is the trade union organization that represents mainly the port dockers of Barcelona
Sindicat Popular de Venedors Ambulants de Barcelona
The Popular Union of Outbound Salesmen (street illegal vendors) organized to defend theirs human rights.
Marina Monsonís
Graphic artist who has decided to recover the historical memory of Barceloneta neighbourhood throughout her life through fish recipes. He is doing it with workshops, graffiti in the neighborhood and also with a visual book he is preparing.
OPAVIVARÁ!
Art collective from Rio de Janeiro, which develops actions in public spaces of the city. In Barcelona they work with different groups such as the Association of Artists and Artisans of Barceloneta to recover or create new sentences that reflect the problems and the history of the neighborhood. From there, these cangas (Portuguese name for pareo or cloth dress) can be seen walking along the beach and hanging on the balconies of Barceloneta for two days in July.
Ruta de autor
Colectivo Team that specializes in creating cultural and thematic routes. We design routes and offer to guide you on our trips and tours, on foot, by plane, car or bicycle. Guiding for us is to mediate between the content of our itineraries and the experience of the findings generated in any tour; “a new way to understand the cultural tourism itineraries,” as asserted in La Vanguardia about us. Ruta de autor has the support of the Barcelona City History Museum (MUHBA) and other public and private institutions.
Curators of the Programme
The Green Parrot: The Green Parrot is a non-profit organisation dedicated to contemporary art practices. In September 2016 started the second iteration of The Green Parrot, as a resident project at Fundació Antoni Tàpies and run by Rosa Lleó. Their projects will not be only exhibitions, they will take the form of events, parties or publications, and will be happening around the world.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
Open-air Cinema season
Open-air cinema session © Fundació Antoni Tàpies
1. The Forgotten Space, 2010. The film follows container cargo aboard ships, barges, trains and trucks, listening to workers, engineers, planners, politicians and those marginalised by the global transport system. As Sekula says: ‘Our film is about globalisation and the sea, the “forgotten space” of our modernity.’
Authors: Allan Sekula and Noël Burch. | Duration: 112 min
2. Marseille Après la Guerre, 2015, and Tsukiji, 2001 (Double bill).
Marseille Après la Guerre portrays the dockworkers of Marseille after the Second World War. It is also a homage to Ousmane Sembène, a Senegalese filmmaker and one of the founding figures of the New African Cinema of the 1960s.
Author: Billy Woodberry. | Duration: 10 min
Tsukiji is, in the words of the director, an ’urban symphony’ dedicated to the largest fishmarket in the world, and one of the last surviving proletarian spaces in Tokyo.
Author: Allan Sekula. | Duration: 43 min
3. Costa da morte, 2013. The film explores the Galician region through the people who inhabit it, bearing witness to their work and the relationship they have built with their natural environment.
Author: Lois Patiño. | Duration: 83 min
The fishermen of the Barceloneta
Did you know that there are still fishermen in the city? Guided by the descendants of a long line of Barcelona fishermen, we will discover their secrets and the difficulties of this ancient trade. The activity will take place at the Moll de Pescadors de la Barceloneta, a unique and emblematic environment. Conducted by Cap a mar.
The fishermen of the Barceloneta © Fundació Antoni Tàpies
The exhibition Allan Sekula
Collective Sisyphus seen by the dockworkers of the Port of Barcelona. For many years, Allan Sekula saw the neighbourhood of Barceloneta as a study case and established a relationship with the dockworkers to document their work. They are now paying homage to him with their own personal vision of the aims of the exhibition Allan Sekula. Collective Sisyphus.
The port: in Sekula saeculorum
Guided tour in a traditional Golondrina boat around the commercial port of Barcelona, one of the lesser known parts of the city. The port struggles and conflicts characteristic of this zone inspired Allan Sekula since the mid-nineties. Conducted by Ruta de autor, with representatives from the Organització d’Estibadors Portuaris de Barcelona (Dockworkers Union).
Presentation by the collective OPAVIVARÁ!
Gathering during which the Brazilian artists collective OPAVIVARÁ! will present their projects and give a voice to the local groups taking part: Col·lectiu d’Artistes i Artesans de la Barceloneta and Sindicat Popular de Venedors Ambulants de Barcelona.
Photographic bicycle route along the seafront
Photographic bicycle route with Cristina Caparrós (Cap a Mar Association) and the photographer Joan Morejón (director of 4photos). The activity will explore the transformations of the seafront through the photographic lens. No knowledge of photography required.
https://fundaciotapies.org/en/projecte/an-oceanic-feeling/
Video | Visit to the exhibition Allan Sekula seen by the dockworkers of the Port of Barcelona
Video | The port: in Sekula saeculorum
