March 2015
by Anna Dot (Plaga)

Greys and Spätrot or the red when it is late

The day I finally decided to go adrift, with the idea that later I would write about the route I’d just done, happens to be not only a horrible grey day, but on top of that Arco is taking place in Madrid along with all the other things that are organized in the city parallel to this art fair. I suppose that means that a big number of the cultural agents from Barcelona are there, rather than here, and I walked along the Rambla de Poblneou with the sensation that the city really is emptier until I get to the bookshop Nollegiu. Maria, the storekeeper, explains to me that they have activities nearly every day. Among them, she tells me about the cycle on the translation of minority languages, we talk about it for a while, I browse “De llindar en llindar”, by Paul Celan translated by Arnau Pons, grey covers, and I learn a new word: Spätro or the colour red when it is late. Right by the active bookshop one can find Fireplace, a new space dedicated to the artistic practice and ways of making that are welcoming.

It is drizzling. I want to go and find Pallars Road and walk until I get to Arc de Triomf. On the way, on Pujades road, I come across gallery La Plataforma, with the show “Arte & Venda”, with works of different media and artists like Diego Mallo or Ricard Aymar, amongst many others. This show was opened in commemoration of the 4^th anniversary of the gallery. From the title I only take the Arte part and I head to another anniversary, Valid Photo that has also decided to celebrate (in this case) 5 years with a selection of works by some of the authors that have worked with this gallery dedicated to photography. The show starts with three poignant images by photojournalist Paco Elvira. The first is hard, in black and white, we see soldiers and armies. I could describe some of the other work by other photojournalists in the same way: Fabio Bucciarelli, Manu Brabo and Guillem Valle, that later on I find on the walls of Blueproject Foundation, on Princesa Road, in the frame of the exhibition “Bukra Inshallah. The Libyan War”. From here I go to gossip in the new Museu de Cultures del Món since this first month is free entry, and I’m filled with the ethical conflicts which occur in such a space, that not only talks about other cultures, but as well –and mainly- about ours.

A bit overwhelmed I head to the bar and Miscelanea gallery, where at the moment the show “Antes y despues de…” by Elena López Lanzarote is on. Her work is biro-drawing based, fine lines, slightly naive, to talk about the quotidian time, the little and at the same time enormous step between this interval of time and the next, in which the coffee will be ready or I will be done with the dishes. And talking about time I hope, when I leave, to see a sky heavy of Spätrot or that red when it is late, because I think it is late, but it isn´t: the thing remains grey, almost black. I go back in a straight line and I stop when I’m in front of the block where Nyam Nyam is based. Today the interventions by Marc Caelles end, part of the cycle “Todo lo que me gusta es ilegal, inmoral o engorda”. Caellas talks to us about pigs and confesses to have the suspicion that in the Monstoriu castle a woman´s body was used as an object in which to serve bits of meat.

And this way, asking myself whether Spätrot or the red when is late could describe the colour of the sausage on the body of the woman that I have in front of me lying with her face down on the table in which fifteen people surround her, this route ends.

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Text by Anna Dot (Plaga) for GRAF