What unfolds in Two Eyes Wander Restlessly is the erratic journey of a Barcelona photographer as she wanders through the city’s mountain and peripheral neighbourhoods. The itinerary has neither a beginning nor end, deliberately avoiding the city centre and instead venturing into a more marginal Barcelona. This contemplative vision explores the boundaries of both the city and the photographic medium with an idealistic gaze. Bright, saturated colours, layered images and the interplay of light and shadow are the tools used to transform the city’s most emblematic urban landscapes, proposing a more personal and unfamiliar vision as an alternative to the postcard-perfect city.
Blanca Viñas’s work speculates on the relationship between space and time, questions the laws of gravity and revives the importance of the unconscious. Ultimately, it seeks to inspire alternative – and thus critical – ways of seeing what unfolds around us.
I like to look at Barcelona from a distance; it gives me the impression that, from afar, all situations are possible. I find it engaging to identify streets, squares and buildings from this perspective, capturing imagined moments and envisioning them as I would like them to be. Two eyes wander restlessly and discover that the city is infinite.
I make my way up to Tibidabo and enter Nancy Holt’s exhibition at the MACBA, mixing different worlds and realising that everything inaccessible has a magnetism that captivates me.
In Joan Reventós Park, I meander and reflect. It relaxes me to step into quiet, serene spaces. Suddenly, I hear the sound of skaters jumping at the MACBA… I’m not sure what sound it will be.
Living less than five minutes from Park Güell is a small privilege that only ceases to feel that way when I have to contend with crowds on the buses taking me home.
Exploring the mountain neighbourhoods without stepping into the city centre allows me to discover another side of Barcelona, the one that doesn’t appear on postcards and the one I love most.
Going up and down, shifting perspectives, looking at everything from unconventional angles in the hope that, with a bit of luck, I might see it differently. This surely defines my exploratory restlessness.
I still don’t know where I learned to be idealistic, but I equally delight in things that spin and things that blink, perhaps because it’s a way to escape into a world where it’s always a celebration.
Living in a city, wandering through it and exploring it is another way to learn more about myself. I’ve discovered that contrasts and contradictions fascinate me.
It’s common for my wanderings around the city to lead me to border, peripheral or somewhat isolated neighbourhoods. It’s from those vantage points that I invent a city tailored to my desires, one where traffic lights always show green, the sea is always nearby and I don’t know what vertigo feels like.
And if I get distracted during my wanderings, I try to remember that the sea lifts my spirits. I still can’t tell if it’s because of the horizon and the infinite vistas it offers or because of its movement, which keeps me company.
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