Heartbeats of art in Tecla Sala

We Barcelonans are a race with a dithyrambic tendency who talk a lot about the cultural richness of the Metropolitan Area and the need to expand horizons and artistic activity from the center to the periphery, but when it comes down to it, we are terribly lazy when it comes to visiting exhibitions, concerts, or dance proposals that move away from the geographical border of the CCCB, the Palau de la Música, or the Mercat de les Flors. Barcelona will be great if we broaden our gaze and move our butts to walk, and this certainly comes to the point of waking up and visiting the magnificent exhibition Our garden needs its flowers. Flows and artistic narratives in the Cultural District of L'Hospitalet at Tecla Sala, a vibrant and rich display of the work of artists who have fled gentrification and the rising cost of living in the center of Barcelona, setting up studios and creative activity on the left bank of the Llobregat river.

The exodus of more than 300 artists to L'Hospitalet since 2015 is no coincidence: according to data from the habitatge.gencat.cat portal, the average rent for an apartment in Barcelona remains anchored at the barely affordable 964.81 euros on average, while L'Hospitalet presents the more humane figure of 702.84 euros. In parallel, the demographic fabric of our particular Queens is of a hopeful richness: it remains one of the most densely populated areas in Europe (21,364.76 inhabitants/km²) and in the last twenty years, says Idescat, it has gone from having 2.44% to 22.77% of newly arrived population, 1.19% more than the city of Barcelona. I would say that all this infects the enormous lower space of Tecla Sala with a great richness of genres, a lot of work, and an apparent jungle chaos that disappears immediately if we pay attention to the unveiled explanations of the curators David Armengol and Albert Mercadé who center so much arborescence.

The sonorous beats and constant vibration that fill the room are anticipated beforehand when we go down the equipment ramp and we are surprised by Fluorescent Markov Beat (2019) by the Swiss Oscar Martín, a light installation that experiments with techno to set the mood for one of the most interesting thematic axes of the exhibition: the reflex act of breathing. Due to professional sound deformation, I have been very interested in the work of the very young Laura Lanelli from Granada in the work Palpitar Palpar (which we had already seen in the essential Mixtur festival in 2020) and which the artist and performer has now solidified into eight different material and sculptural devices of surprising richness in which she fires her own voice in texts in different languages: this is a very subtle, sensational work and it is a pity that the environment is not the most propitious to listen to it and that the size of the room dilutes its acoustic nuances.

Sound art is not mere decoration in this orgy of works (in fact, the title of the exhibition refers to the first duo album by African musicians Jess Sah Bit and Peter One in 1985 and serves the curators to place music at the same level of innovation as visual arts) and one of the central spaces of the tour shows it, the work Belvedere, expressly woven for the exhibition and which aims to unite the musical scene of L'Hospitalet in a fictitious stage-box very well designed by TAKK, the duo of architects Mireia Luzárrega and Alejandro Muiño, and which will complement the space with streaming performances woven by those responsible for the Salamandra venue with names such as Neus Borrell and Bru Ferri, Anabel Lee, Aiala and The Zephyr Bones. I wish most art exhibitions were so musical!

The will to represent the panorama of L'Hospitalet is not only a commercial leitmotif, which is why the curators have included representation from 10 very active spaces in this well-established art district: the Freixas Building, Can Político, La Tonal'H, Espai Salamina, FASE, Trama 34, La Infinita, LeonardodaVinci, Cobalto 13, Av. Fabregada 22 and TPK Arte y Pensamiento Contemporáneo. This does not prevent Our Garden from also paying homage to artists who have left their mark on the area, such as Rafael Barradas and his slightly fruity cubism (Barcelona1918) or our great Antoni Muntadas who, with Palabras, Palabras (2017), an installation that deforms and horrifies some overused concepts in political-talk show language until they lose their meaning, reminds us that at nearly eighty, he remains one of the youngest and most unveiled artists of the tribe.

At a time when reflection is too often confused with boredom and imposture, the curators have achieved the not inconsiderable feat of creating an art exhibition that combines reflection and passion. Works like Ab Intra lead me to this binomial, a masterpiece (only partially exhibited here) by Quico Estevill in collaboration with the poet Víctor Sunyol, conceived when the artist had to flee a building threatened by violent termites, an anecdote that quickly takes us to the universe of the caves of Font Major de l'Espluga de Francolí and the act of bringing light into darkness to walk in shadowy areas: an amazing work that would be magnificent to see in its entirety (for now, as far as I know, we can only do so on the artist's website). If you want to have fun, snoop around the movements of the pictorial machines of the famous magicians Lolu & Sosaku!

To the good work of the curators must be added the good science of the DOES Work study in coordinating the design of the exhibition and especially the Sociedad Zero team in the general arrangement of the works. If one wanted to combine the effervescence of the city's artistic pulse with the act of producing a truly collective exhibition, its organizers can be proud of the work achieved. I can only recommend that you walk through Tecla Sala, because you will have a great time, also discovering authors you did not know, some like Raül Páez, insultingly born in 1995. I would say that Barcelona museums should imitate exhibitions like these in their eagerness to capture the photo of a moment in its greatest richness and to give voice to the city's lesser-known artists. L'Hospitalet is doing it and, I am sure, initiatives like Our Garden will yield many flowers in the immediate future.

When the visit is over, and to continue with the good mood, one can go up to the upper floor of Tecla Sala where there is a magnificent public library in a space as open as the exhibition basement, but with much more natural light. Too often we are not aware of the quality of some of our public facilities, and it must be said that the libraries of the Metropolitan Area represent an approximation of Catalonia to the first world that is worth maintaining and that should increase its budget whenever necessary. Because for the one who writes to you there is no happier place than a library. Come on, move your ass and everyone to Tecla Sala. It's twenty minutes by metro, you lazy bunch!