Más allá de los muros, la calle

The Men Penitentiary Center, also known as «La Model», was opened in 1904 and quickly turned into a symbol of the political repression that would last for decades, leaving a historical trace in the city of Barcelona. It is a very odd architecture project, with a circular floor plan which head building placed in the center. From this module, there are six arms follow a panoptical distribution.

This center shut its doors on June 8th, 2017, and nowadays is open to the public for free tours.

The «Modelo» penitentiary center keeps the stories of hundreds of thousands of people that once were within its walls. One of these people was the very young writer Josep Domènech i Avellanet, who with only 23 years was imprisoned from 1939 to 1942, until he was finally executed by firearm. His girlfriend, Natàlia Sans, achieved to save the poems that Josep wrote during his captivity at the Modelo.

We picked the powerful piece «MÁS ALLÁ DE LOS MUROS, LA CALLE», from the poem «Tarde de domingo», in which the writer misses all that happens beyond the walls of the prison, and desperately moans about the melancholic pass of the time behind bars.

We believe that these words can help us to quickly understand the reality at the prison. The quote also portrays the same building life, which in the future will be opened to the city, and will be filled with cultural activities coming straight out the walls.

"Tarde callada, tarde pensativa
de Invierno y Primavera mezcla.

El sol la alumbra; lluvias la besan.

Tarde sin alegría del viento,
tarde callada.

Sin golondrinas,
sin esperanzas.

Más allá de los muros, la calle;
ruta de silencios, somnolienta.

En los aleros de los tejados; pone la bruma matiz diverso.

Tarde sin luz
sabor a rancia
tarde pobre, gris y yerta.

Las rejas tienen reojos
y de sol ausencias.

Murmullos en la cárcel,
plantel de nuevas promesas.

Limosna para la semana,
fruto de falasa cosechas.

¡Ah! si todo aquí acabara…
¡Ah! si la última fuera…

Pero vendrán tantas otras
tristes tardes de paciencia..."

The intervention is focused on the exterior courtyard at module 4 and spreads all over the floor and walls. The work is designed to be watched from outside the walls, through some perforated windows on the walls. The technique of the anamorphosis allows us to create a game of perspectives, playing with the walls of the courtyard with an optical deformation. We divide the line into three parts and overlap the perspectives generated by the three points of view.