Tomàs Abella

Mass tourism is a relatively recent phenomenon. Cheap flight tickets, a global culture encouraging people to experience the world first-hand, and a growing middle class in countries like China, have converged to create a booming business focused on the entertainment and the mass consumption of millions of tourists travelling all over the world. The tourism boom in Barcelona has turned the capital of Catalonia into the fourth most visited city in Europe (after London, Paris and Rome). In the last 25 years the number of tourists has multiplied by twenty, reaching 30 million visitors in 2017. Today, Barcelona is a first-rate inbound mass tourism destination on a global level. Tourism, the so-called “industry of the 21st century”, has experienced massive growth in Barcelona, and due to this massification the city is gradually losing its social networks, its genuineness and its dynamism–precisely the ingredients promoted by the tourism sector. In the last three decades, the inhabitants of Barcelona have witnessed the liberalisation of the licenses of hotels in the overcrowded Ciutat Vella district; the exponential and uncontrolled growth of the number of tourist apartments–with the subsequent pressure to increase rent prices and the progressive expulsion of the working classes from the neighbourhoods coveted by speculation; the overexploitation of the monumental zones and the privatisation of public space; the aggravation of environmental pollution due to tourist coaches and cruise ships; the impact of mass tourism on the–hardly protected–traditional and local businesses; and, last but not least, job insecurity associated with the tourism industry. Tourist saturation is a shared responsibility. Municipal and regional governments, as well as the tourist agents of the host destinations, need to become aware that there are limits to growth, and to make sure that the number of visitors is in line with the capacities of the destination. The well-being of the residents should have priority over the needs of the sector’s global operators. According to the social movements the city is home to, a clear commitment to touristic degrowth is imperative. The project “I love Barcelona” was photographed in 12 of Barcelona’s neighbourhoods, in the districts Ciutat Vella, Gràcia, L’Eixample and Sants-Montjuïc. (Traslation Julia Egger)

In some latitudes of our planet, the title of this exposition is part of popular imagery. Women "fairies" who bring about life with water and who extract prosperity from the water. In the "driest" part of Africa, millions of "fairies" travel the territory each day for three, four, five or more hours, loaded down with containers that weigh 30 kilos of life, 30 litres of water. The smallest "fairies", just 5 or 6 years old, can only carry 10 kilos of life -of water- and don't have time to go to school. Unlike the legend, most African women do not have access to pure, crystalline water, but rather water that is muddy and contaminated. Added to the lack of water infrastructures, the use of water for political and war purposes and the contamination of rivers and lagoons in developing countries, now there are the consequences of the global climate change -particularly caused by emissions from developed countries- that impede 800 million people from accessing safe water (330 million in Sub-Saharan Africa). It is a question of life or death for a large part of the world's population. "Women of Water" explores the water problem in Sub-Saharan Africa, but it also aims to document the steady fight of the women of Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mauritania -the main figures in this exposition- to obtain safe and accessible water which will open the floodgates for them to education, health and economic development. Because we, the women and men of the North and South, global citizens who are aware of our responsibilities, must also make progress towards the rational and just management of the planet's resources so as to guarantee a decent life for all of its inhabitants.

In the high lands and Andean valleys of Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, some 15 million Qhiswa and Aymara Indians live. Heirs of the upper Andean civilizations that once inhabited South America, for more than five centuries the Qhiswa and Aymara have survived a campaign of border subjugation in a massacre legitimized by the racist ideology of the dominating culture. Despite the social destructuring and acculturation processes they have suffered, these people have not lost their identity or their awareness. The victory of Aymara Evo Morales in the elections held in Bolivia in 2006 made him the first indigenous President of an Andean country since colonial times. His purely pro-indigenous political platform is harshly protested by the elite, of white or mestizo origin, that has historically governed the country. The Earth Surviving in the puna, the high Andean plateau some 4,000 metres above sea level, is not an easy task. During the day, the puna is horribly hot because it is very close to the sky, but at night, the cold seeps into your bones. Intimately identified with the Earth through centuries of labour, the Qhiswa and Aymara worship the pachamama, or Mother Earth. The farming cycle establishes the ritual and festive calendar in these peasant communities. The silver and tin mining In 1985, the Bolivian government did away with state mining. Thousands of miners, who suddenly found themselves out of work, decided to rent the mines out to the State. And so arose a surrealist system of cooperatives where the members ferociously self-exploit themselves in order to extract some sliver or tin so they have something to live off of. In the mining cooperatives of Cerro Rico of Potosí or Llallagua, if no silver or tin are extracted, there are no wages. When a miner dies in a gallery – life expectancy is 48 years – his widow is granted the right to be a palliri. The palliri collect the rocks that the miners dispose of in order to recover the silver or tin remains they contain. Bolivian coca On the grounds of the San Antonio men's penitentiary in Cochabamba, 80% of the prison population is linked to drug trafficking crimes. Most of them are peasants accused of being pisacocas day labourers that work in clandestine cocaine paste extraction laboratories. An average of 350 inmates is crammed into just 1,200 m² of prison surface area. The 90 available cells are sold to the prisoners with the greatest acquisition power; the prices range from between 650 and 2,500 dollars, but most of them sleep on the ground.

The world's first cocoa crops originated in the region of Soconusco, some four thousand years ago, where they were grown in a natural Paradise of amazing biodiversity in what is now the Mexican state of Chiapas. Cocoa, like corn, structured the economic, social and cultural life of the Mesoamerican civilisations. Mayans and Aztecs associated xocolatl (bitter water, the origin of the word chocolate) with the life-giving fluid that is blood and the corn cob with the heart. Chocolate made from Creole cocoa from Soconusco, a "rarity" of nature due to its scarcity, yet a feast for the senses, was a drink that was reserved for the elite of Mayan and Aztec society and the tradition was continued by the European Royalty that coined the term "Cacao Real" or "Royal Cocoa" to refer to this exclusive product. The Mayan farmers of the Soconusco region, like their ancestors, continue to grow cocoa in humid, tropical forests. This type of forest management is diverse, sustainable and free of agro-chemicals, yet is under serious threat from deforestation and the expansion of monoculture crops that are annihilating the forests and cocoa cultivation, thus forcing local farmers into poverty and emigration. Since 2004, the Centro de Agroecología San Francisco de Asís (CASFA) centre for agroecology, has been running the "Rescuing Royal Cocoa" programme in the Soconusco region, with the aim of preserving the nutritional and environmental benefits of this mythical crop and providing its producers with food and economic independence.

For many immigrants who have achieved their dream of arriving in a country where they think things will be better for them, the reality sometimes turns into a nightmare. Alone, with no knowledge of the language, "without papers" which lead them to unemployment or illegal employment, they must re-weave their new life sleeping in the street, surviving on the generosity of a few, wandering the streets of the confusing world of consumption. Some of them will be arrested and deported to their countries of origin with the frustration and drama of the failure achieved; others will attain their objectives and will find a job that justifies the extraordinary sacrifice they have made.

In 1995, a group of women from a slum in Pune (a city with a population of 5.5 million near Bombay) began a primary care and gynecology health project organized by IHMP, an Indian NGO. With few resources within their reach, most of them without any formal education, in a context where men impose the rules regarding sexual relations, these true heroines have been able to considerably reduce maternal-infant mortality and sexual diseases in their community. The Indian Ministry of Health has adopted their system as a health policy model for the slums throughout the country, where more than half of the population of the large cities is crammed.

In Nicaragua, 14% of children aged 0 to 14 have some kind of handicap. One third of all disabled children in Nicaragua are found in the coffee-growing department of Jinotega, even though Jinotega only accounts for 5% of the Nicaraguan population. The large number of children that suffer from a physical or mental handicap in Jinotega is attributed to contamination from the massive use of pesticides, such as the deadly DDT, in the coffee cultivation process. Los Pipitos Association, which provides medical assistance and psychological support, was born out of a response from parents of the deprived and forgotten disabled children.

En 1997 un edificio abandonado por el Ayuntamiento de Barcelona en el popular barrio de Sants fue okupado, convirtiéndose en el Centro Social Autogestionado Can Vies. Tras 17 años de prolija actividad dando cobijo a más de 50 asociaciones y entidades del barrio, el Ayuntamiento de Barcelona procedió a su desalojo y demolición. Los fuertes disturbios y la presión ejercida por los vecinos de Sants durante varios días impidieron la destrucción total del Centro Social okupado. La excavadora que se empleó para la demolición fue quemada. El Ayuntamiento dio marcha atrás al derribo y los vecinos de Sants y sus okupantes decidieron reconstruir Can Vies.

La explosiva masificación turística que venía sufriendo Barcelona en los últimos lustros –30 millones de turistas visitaron la ciudad en 2019– implosionó debido a la pandemia de la covid-19. El modelo económico suicida y precario basado en el ocio-consumo compulsivo en el que se sustenta el turismo de masas, también en Barcelona, zozobró en la primavera de 2020. Con el durísimo confinamiento de la población las calles quedaron vacías, los turistas se marcharon, el tráfico rodado disminuyó en un 90%, un silencio inaudito –anhelado por muchos vecinos– se apoderó de la ciudad. Poco a poco la pandemia fue remitiendo y los barceloneses volvieron a las calles, descubrimos que en el barrio Gótico vivían niños y que la explanada junto a la Catedral era una fantástica cancha de fútbol, que en la Plaza Reial se jugaba a básquet y que unos deliciosos títeres nos explicaban lo duro que era ser botones de hotel. En los aledaños del templo de la Sagrada Familia las personas mayores podían pasear con calma sin tener que esquivar palos de selfies, segways, rickshaws o a unos centenares de cruceristas; las tiendas de suvenires, los restaurantes de paella y sangría siguen cerrados y la mayoría de comercios de barrio están abiertos. Una Barcelona inédita, extraña, titubeante entre el miedo y la esperanza, pero aún reconocible, es como si viéramos a la primera unidad de una matrioshka sin el volumen que va adquiriendo con la superposición de las otras muñecas, más liviana, más habitable.