El sol actúa sobre nuestros cuerpos y nosotros respondemos (The sun acts on our bodies and we respond)
Social Practice, 2026
As an artist-in-residence at Curtidas, I invited the public to walk with me through the streets of El Raval, Barcelona's hottest neighborhood. Together, we shared stories about the material and sensorial effects of rising temperatures on the urban environment. Walks were guided by the felt sense of heat—following the shade, mapping the tree canopy, seeking refuge in climate shelters, and wayfinding to water—documenting locations of environmental entanglement as we went. These engagements culminated in El sol actúa sobre nuestros cuerpos y nosotros respondemos (The sun acts on our bodies and we respond), a series of photographs and short film.
The photographs documented informal cooling centers, where community members gather outside the network of government-designated climate shelters. These included sites like L’Àgora Juan Andrés Benítez, a community garden and organizing space built on a vacant lot the community seized. Pairing 35mm film with thermographic images, the series sets the seen beside the unseen: the heat of place.
Images (Above): Krzysztof W. Wrobel
Single-channel video, 2026, 27:13
Camera: Borja V. Conde
A short meditative film captures a performative walk in the contested site of Plaça dels Àngels, a microclimate within El Raval where surface temperatures can reach up to 58°C at the hottest point of the day. The entry to the cultural cross-zone of MACBA, the Plaça dels Àngels stands bare and exposed to the sun. A naturally occurring cultural district has formed around the museum, one that never crosses its walls. Outside, skaters ride the plaça’s angles while the unhoused and their familiars make base camp where the building casts shade; inside, visitors are mostly tourists. A planned expansion and remodel of the plaça threatens to displace the community that congregate there. The walk places the body in direct contact with the land, the sun, and the concrete, asking what we build and how it cultivates the conditions for thriving life.
The work was shared with the community in the Curtidas storefront and through a walking meditation in El Raval, where I led participants in collectively exploring the experience of heat.
Images (Above): Borja V. Conde