City of sand, guided visit with the artist David Bestué

The exhibition City of sand, by David Bestué, curated by Marta Sesé, offers a unique look at the city of Barcelona.

Bestué starts from this question: What shapes the history of a city? As if a storm had brought to the surface everything that we do not contemplate as hidden, forgotten or cornered, the artist fills the three floors of the new space with a story of Barcelona that travels between personal memory, dream and exhaustive research on the margins of museography. Understanding it as material and symbol, the artist contrasts the projected dream idea of city —ambitious urban projects in model form or the conception of the city from a viewpoint of progress and technological advances— with popular and counter imagery —in the shape of images in the press, revolts and cries that go against the grain, set out in newspapers, which become shared impressions in the collective subconscious of all those who inhabit the city. In a way, Bestué builds a contra-history out of what can be found on the fringes, using the scraps, remnants and debris. To do so, it uses both symbolic and material elements.

(Authors of the song Ciutat de sorra: Hidrogenesse)