When the Cultural District of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat was conceived, an area of 25 hectares was delimited, comprising the Carretera del Mig and Cobalt Street, between the neighborhoods of Centre, Bellvitge, and Sant Josep. This area was intended to host artists in industrial warehouses that had become vacant due to successive economic crises. Very soon, reality surpassed expectations, and the initiative extended beyond the established limits, even overcoming the railway divide that splits the city in two. The Santa Eulàlia neighborhood, far from the original plans, has ended up acquiring a special prominence, considering that it also had an industrial past that had left it with many empty buildings.
The presence of painters, sculptors, and musicians has spread throughout the city, although it has happened in a subtle way. The absence of large companies and territorial dispersion has not created a single nucleus or one that is too large, with the exception of emblematic spaces such as the Freixas Building or LA TONAL'H. One can walk through the 25 hectares of industrial park without knowing which warehouses have artists inside. Some details give it away, but one has to be attentive. Suddenly, you hear two young people speaking English or you come across graffiti by artists like Kenor —which mix with the union slogans that usually proliferate in industrial areas—.
Any route through the Cultural District must pass through the Tecla Sala cultural center, which is now celebrating "more or less" the fifth anniversary of this cultural project promoted in L'Hospitalet with an exhibition until July 18 that aims to showcase all the talent that has been concentrating in the city, explains its technical manager, Mireia Mascarell. "More or less" because it was supposed to be celebrated a year ago, but the pandemic delayed it.
And "more or less" because it is very difficult to put a birth date on initiatives like this one. As of 2012, it began to materialize, with a participatory process that asked the people of Hospitalet to imagine the city of the future and they opted for culture. Three years later it gained strength, but for a long time many artists had settled in the city. Basically, due to the lower rents it offered compared to other artistic hubs, such as Poblenou.
This artistic migration gained strength after the 2008 crisis and the success of the local administration, Mascarell points out, was knowing how to detect it and give it shape to be able to further enhance it. The figures speak for themselves. When work began to promote the Cultural District, in 2014, there were about 200 artists in the city. Currently, this figure is already between 500 and 600.
Why the Cultural District has worked
Beyond the lower prices, Mascarell points out that this growth is explained by word-of-mouth among artists. This is the case of one of the historical figures of the Cultural District, the sculptor Marcos Romero, who works from the iconic Freixas Building. He settled there 15 years ago because, precisely, he was told about a sculptor with whom he ended up sharing a studio. Romero sees the expansion that cultural activity is experiencing in L'Hospitalet from the same Freixas Building, where there are already between 30 and 40 artists and the trend is on the rise.
The promotion that has been done both institutionally and by the artists themselves has been key to achieving this, the sculptor defends, but the support they have received from individuals such as the owner of their building, who has facilitated their stay and believed in the initiative, has also contributed. Mascarell adds the facilities that the City Council has provided to attract new artists, with subsidies and tax breaks. "The city is put at their disposal," he emphasizes. In this regard, he recalls the arrival in 2018 of Vitralls Bonet, those in charge of making all the stained glass windows in the Sagrada Família. A commission went to receive them, including the mayor, Núria Marín, and the artisans' response was that in the 100 years they had been in Gràcia no one had ever visited them.
When Vitralls Bonet settled in the Cultural District, representatives from the City Council came to welcome them, and the artisans were surprised because in the 100 years they had been in Gràcia, no one had ever visited them.The responsible technician also highlights "the geostrategic position" of L'Hospitalet, attached to Barcelona and very close to the airport, a key issue for art buyers who go from one gallery to another.This is the case of Alex Nogueras, partner of the first commercial contemporary art gallery that arrived in the city, just when the Cultural District was beginning to take off.Nogueras explains that they chose L'Hospitalet because they needed a large space at an acceptable price, and this could not be found in Barcelona. In fact, he emphasizes that the good connections make them more central than some areas of the Catalan capital. They found the building they now occupy while walking through the Santa Eulàlia neighborhood, and other galleries, such as Ana Mas's, joined them.
The initial enthusiasm that led Nogueras to L'Hospitalet has gradually faded over time. The gallerist is critical of the City Council and points out that they have not been able to access the facilities they were promised. "The Cultural District is a good project, but it is not being carried out. And this could lead to its failure," he warns. In this regard, apart from the difficulties in benefiting from tax breaks, Nogueras criticizes the slowness in carrying out some procedures, such as requesting permits to film advertisements outdoors, causing producers to prefer going to Barcelona, where they are resolved more quickly.
Variety of artists
The Cultural District has ended up bringing together "a bit of everything," explains Mascarell, although painting and sculpture; music and performing arts; and design predominate. The three most predominant groups of artists are present in the Tecla Sala exhibition. Visual artists were going to be the central axis, but the other two also made their space. Sala Salamandra has been in charge of programming live concerts ---they are held in the middle of the exhibition, in an enabled space--- and the designers have conceived not only the supports for the works but also the chairs where the guards sit and the hydroalcoholic gel dispensers.
La Salamandra, perhaps a more well-known cultural agent, experienced a similar effect to what the Cultural District caused when it opened in 1996. It was the first venue in L'Hospitalet and triggered the appearance of rehearsal and recording studios and instrument stores, according to its director, David Lafuente. This process is being replicated with the Cultural District, which has brought associations such as El Pumarejo or Espacio Zowie.