Barcelona
BARCELONA
In Barcelona, the area involved in the project activities is close to the site of the Teatre Lliure, between Montjuïc and the district of El Poble-sec. The hill of Montjuïc, at the foot of which lies the Fira de Montjuïc, is a part of the city created through a unitary plan for the International Exhibition of 1929. The hill, formerly a fortified site and now a park, and the trade fair district have hosted the city's most important international events and trade fairs for a century, as well as museums, the Olympic stadium, the Greek Theatre, and the Teatre Lliure spaces located in the Agriculture exhibition hall.
The fair spaces have played a significant role in the history of Barcelona, accompanying its modernisation and adapting to different functions over time. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the main building served as the city's vaccination centre, giving the district a new and unexpected centrality. Despite its historical and monumental role, today the neighbourhood alternates between frequented and iconic places and peripheral and marginal spaces, constituting a border area between dense city and park, between rich and poor neighbourhoods, between the Ensanche and the productive suburbs of Llobregat and the El Poble-Sec district.
The performative actions, interpreting the spaces of the city, its history, social changes, the role of theatre, confront both the spaces of the fair with its extraordinary archives and the life of the populations living in the neighbourhoods of Montjuïc and El Poble-sec.
BARCELONA |
|---|
| Residents: 1.636.293 inhab. |
| Women: 857.519 (52,5%) |
| Men: 778.674 (47,6%) |
| Spanish nationality: 1.158.324 (70,6%) |
| Foreigners: 481.657 (29,4%) |
| Youths (0-14 years): 193.684 (11,8%) |
| Elderly (over 65): 349.441 (21,3%) |
Source: Ajuntament de Barcelona, Estadistica, January 1st, 2022
The city and
the areas involved
The District:
Saints-Montjuïc
The Sants-Montjuïc district is the largest in the city, with an area that ranks fourth in size in the municipality of Barcelona. The part of the city affected by the project actions is the area near the Montjuïc hill, at the foot of which is located the Fira de Montjuïc. This is an iconic place that has gone through various historical phases, from the Universal Exhibition in 1929, to a detention centre during the civil war, to more recently being occupied by unofficial housing. Although the Montjuïc area registers a high presence of public parks and services targeted at citizenship, its role as a cultural and sports hub is overshadowed by the presence of large-scale urban functions such as fairs, museums and tourism; these uses tend to be disconnected from the social and daily life of the neighbourhood. This set of conditions, combined with an architecture that has weak connections with the surrounding urban structure, make the area an ‘urban island’. In fact, although it is among the most touristic areas of the city, for the inhabitants of Barcelona it is almost forgotten, making it a ‘separate zone’, an urban limit, both physical and in the perception of residents.
Saints-MONTJUÏC |
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| Residents: 183.323 inhab. (11% total population of Barcelona) |
| Women: 95.134 (51,89%) |
| Men: 88.189 (48,10%) |
| Spanish nationality: 121.708 (67,9%) |
| Foreigners: 59.062 (32,1%) |
| Youths (0-14 years): 20.159 (10.9%) |
| Elderly (over 65): 37.335 (20,36%) |
| Source: Ajuntament de Barcelona, Estadistica, January 1st, 2022 |
The venues of the Fira affect three of the eight neighbourhoods that fall within the Sants-Montjuïc district: El Poble-Sec, la Font de la Guatlla and Hostafranchs. The Teatre Lliure is located on the border between the park and the Poble-Sec district. Characterised by the presence of numerous communities and associations active in the care and development of the neighbourhood, Poble-Sec, like the rest of Sants-Montjuïc, has a highly heterogeneous population in terms of origin and social class, delineating a rich and diverse cultural landscape. In fact, the foreign population of Sants-Montjuïc represents 32% of the district's total population, with a particularly large Latin American community in the Poble-Sec district. The ratio between the female and male population is relatively balanced - with 52% men and 48% women -, while in terms of age composition, Sants- Montjuïc shows a larger elderly population than the young - 20% of the elderly population against 11% of the 0-14 years old population.
The Teatre Lliure, thanks to its strategic location between the neighbourhood and the hill, between the residential area and the fair district, represents an infrastructure and a place of proximity, capable of bringing together different communities and urban populations.
Landscapes, spaces, communities
and theatre
The landscape of Sants-Montjuïc is heterogeneous, characterised by historical buildings, green spaces and cultural sites. The ‘Muntanya de Montjuïc’, one of the city's two hills together with the ‘Muntanya del Tibidabo’, dominates the district's landscape and is made up of green areas, parks, gardens, cultural attractions, sports facilities and recreational areas. Barcelona's two botanical gardens (Jardí Botànic Històric and Jardí Botànic) are both located here and they work as landmarks for the citizens of the metropolis.
In 2007, the Barcelona City Council and the Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology (ICAC) initiated research with the aim of exploring the morphology and the historical and natural evolution of the Montjuïc mountain and to verify the existence of a Roman road in the Satalia district. The study revealed traces of ancient roads and caves integrated with the current urban landscape.
In view of 2029, the centenary of the 1929 International Exhibition, a project for the transformation of the Fira de Montjuïc was provisionally approved. This space, mainly used for trade fairs and commercial events, will be reconfigured in order to open it up to its immediate environment, while maintaining its historical identity. As Montjuïc is a site characterised by green areas, gardens and facilities of different kinds (welfare, administrative, cultural, educational, sports, transport and technical services), the urban planning plan divides the site into four thematic areas: classical (equipped urban park with a predominance of constrained spaces and buildings); sports (equipped urban park with buildings and sports facilities alternating with open spaces and spaces for the road network); natural (protected natural park); and transformed (equipped urban park with thematic gardens open to pedestrians at specific times). With the aim of maintaining the buildings of Montjuïc and recovering the green spaces, the plan adopts an intervention model that recovers the urbanised spaces and returns part of the transformed area to nature and green spaces.
Relevant issues during and after the pandemic
The structures of the Fair, with their flexibility and possibility of reuse, highlighted the responsiveness of its spaces to the changing needs of the community. The main pavilion has been a symbol of the combination of contemporary needs and historical value of the place. This was particularly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the 10,000 square metre Pavilion 4 of the Fira de Montjuïc was converted into one of Catalonia's main vaccination centres, with sixty vaccination points set up on different levels of the building. One area was also turned into a temporary hospital set up by the Department of Health to relieve pressure on the hospital system.
With the limitations imposed by the health measures, the parks and public spaces of Montjuïc and the fairground were a fundamental resource for the population of Barcelona. Thus, the upper areas of the Fira de Montjuïc (which connect to the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya and lead to the upper parts of the hill) have become a place of special interest for the inhabitants of the different neighbourhoods of the district and the entire city.