Barcelona, in memoriam: The Tension between Urban Renovation and The Past

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The year 1992 marked the public entrance of Barcelona into the symbolic space of modernity. This transition was made, among others, through the renovation of the urban space. However, while old buildings were respected, spaces related to the Spanish civil war and the repression suffered under the dictatorship went into oblivion. The paper will explore the tension between modernity and the past using the example of the transformation of El Camp de la Bota, a stretch near the city’s beach that has been successively the site of executions performed by the fascists, shanty town, space for cultural events and only recently recuperated as an active site of memory by artist Francesc Abad.

Stream: Aesthetics, Design

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Graduated in Translation Studies, University Autonoma of Barcelona.
Areas of interest: translation, literary criticism and psychoanalysis.
Current research: the past and its effects in the present as expressed in literature and in urban spaces. Focus of interest: the Spanish Civil war and the Francoist repression.