M._____

location:

Carrer d'Eduard Maristany, 106,

08930 Sant Adrià de Besòs

Barcelona​, Spain

​​

_“Memory of the Smoke” was a powerful exhibition at the Manifesta 15 European Nomadic Biennial. It took place inside the brutalist turbine hall of the Three Chimneys in Sant Adrià de Besòs, just north of Ciutat Vella.

​

_The project explored the area's history of being a "sacrifice zone"—an area that suffers severe, sustained damage from industrial activity in exchange for producing energy. 

​

​

_Inhabited areas whose population and surroundings suffer severe, sustained damage caused by industrial activity are known as sacrifice zones. The industrial landscape in Sant Adrià de Besòs has generated belonging, identity and roots for over a century, but all of this has come at a huge environmental cost. The chimneys, the hulking masses of iron and concrete as well as the electricity pylons have provided continued sustenance while all the time posing a threat.

_A green thread of grassroots protest can be traced with a common purpose: to defy destiny. It can be traced from the first demonstration in Badalona against the “damned soot” to the current struggle of the Platform for the Conservation of The Three Chimneys against the urban speculation that threatens this stretch of the Sant Adrià coastline.

​

_All these environmental struggles are linked to broader cycles of protest, demands and conflict; the green thread is entangled with red and black threads, without which it is impossible to understand the area’s social and urban transformation. Street by street and hand to hand, residents have fought against Francoism, for greater access to education and for improved labour rights, women’s rights, public infrastructure and housing.

_As with rights and spaces, popular memory must also be fought for. That is why, together with the residents of Sant Adrià and the surrounding areas, as well as local entities, Manifesta 15 has organised a place of meeting and engagement at the Three Chimneys. Our collective work has resulted in the creation of this memory room, as well as a programme of activities that will be rolled out by a network of neighbours. Both initiatives – the room and the programme – are intertwined and based on a shared desire to call upon residents to join forces in contemplating the past and constructing the future.​