The pandemic forced many businesses in Barcelona to close their doors and shut down numerous establishments. But, paradoxically, it also led to new openings. In those months of uncertainty, some people began to imagine other ways of working, creating, and even relating to the city. The sociocultural project FUTCH was one of those initiatives that took shape in the midst of the pandemic, in response to a very specific need: for many people linked to culture, creation, or nightlife, the closure of leisure spaces not only meant losing their source of income but also being left without places to meet, share resources, and develop projects.
FUTCH was born from a collective, led by artistic curator Ibai Gorriti, linked to Barcelona's culture and nightlife. Its objective was that, at a time when leisure spaces had to remain closed, to create an open space during the day where artists and other cultural agents could meet, share resources, and launch their projects. Its commitment was to accommodate creators and projects that usually remained outside conventional artistic circuits, with proposals that addressed issues such as feminism, queer culture, or anti-racism, among others.
The commitment also had a physical dimension: in 2021, FUTCH opened a first space in the Raval, conceived as a bookstore, cafeteria, and meeting and creation place. The venue eventually closed, but the collective continued through collaborations and artistic proposals with different institutions. Now, several years later, FUTCH returns to the Raval with the aim of extending its activity to different spaces in the neighborhood and filling them with cultural proposals, generating new meeting and creation places.
For now, the project has begun this new stage from a space at number 6 on Sant Vicenç street, where it has presented Fictitious Authority, an installation by South Korean artist Juhwa Lee. The installation reflects on the bureaucratic difficulties faced by migrants, from administrative procedures to restrictions on crossing borders. A theme that will also be present in some of the proposals that FUTCH is preparing for this new stage.
From its own space to a network of places
With this new space on Sant Vicenç street in El Raval —open to the public on weekends until November 15 and from which they hope to continue developing activities—, FUTCH begins a new stage. It does so after that first experience during the pandemic that showed them the economic difficulties of sustaining a cultural project of these characteristics. Also after the experience acquired from several years working as an independent and nomadic artistic collective, developing activities through collaborations with other institutions and projects, such as Documenta 15 —one of the most ambitious contemporary art exhibitions in the world, held every five years in Kessel (Germany)—, or complementary activities at the CCCB.
Now FUTCH wants to apply that nomadic experience to its return to Raval. As Gorriti explains, the idea is to work in a “tentacular” way and bring the collective's activity to different points of the neighborhood, instead of concentrating all activity in a single venue. “It suits us much better to work from different spaces than to concentrate everything again in a single venue,” she points out. The intention is to collaborate both with cultural spaces that are already active and with others that do not usually host activities open to the public, and even contribute to recovering some of them. In this way, FUTCH's return does not materialize in a single opening, as usually happens in the projects featured in El Radar, but in the will to activate different places in Raval and turn them, even if temporarily, into new meeting and creation spaces.
Thus, each proposal can be developed where it makes the most sense, through collaborations with local collectives and spaces. The goal is to extend the programming to different parts of the neighborhood without depending on its own headquarters. To promote this new stage, FUTCH has the support of Calala Fondo de Mujeres, within the framework of a program financed by the European Union that will run until 2028. This support will allow them to give continuity to their activity and, above all, strengthen and professionalize the collective's structure, two objectives that remained pending during their first stage during the pandemic.
El Raval as a meeting point
The first activity of this new stage is Fictitious Authority, by South Korean artist and designer Juhwa Lee. The installation reproduces the visa application process and puts the public in the shoes of a migrant person who must submit documentation and wait for the authorities to decide whether they can enter or remain in a country. Through this simulation, Juhwa Lee shows how administrative procedures can end up conditioning a person's freedom of movement.
These are issues especially present in Raval, where many people maintain ties with countries and cultures with which they have not necessarily had direct contact. The diversity of origins and experiences that coexist in the neighborhood connects with the themes that FUTCH wants to address in this new stage. In fact, Gorriti explains that the collective increasingly identifies with the neighborhood itself rather than with other types of labels. "In Raval, we find a place that better explains who we are, because the neighborhood brings together many of the realities that cross our project: migration, cultural diversity, feminist and queer struggles.
The program that FUTCH is designing, and which will be deployed in different parts of Raval, will combine conversations and debates with artistic proposals of various formats, from sound installations to performances. More than presenting works to be contemplated, the collective wants these proposals to serve to generate exchanges and bring together people with different experiences and perspectives. "We want encounter and participation to be a central part of the activities," explains Gorriti.