Cities change, sometimes too quickly. In this process, the traces of those who inhabit them and the histories that shape them can be buried under the logic of urban development. But there are those who resist, those who observe carefully and find in photography a tool to dignify the memory of spaces.
In this interview, we speak to Ana Campaña, a jurist specializing in urban policy, an activist for the right to housing and a visual explorer of urban margins. Through her work 'Parasoles', Ana reflects on the scars of the neighbourhood, the material resistance of the city and the power of art as a resistance tool. An essential dialogue on memory, politics and the right to inhabit our spaces.
1.- Your work suggests that the city has a memory and that streets resist oblivion. How do you think photography can contribute to preserving this memory and challenging the processes of urban transformation?
What a good question! From my point of view, photography plays a key role in documenting life and spaces in the city. The act of capturing architecture, places in transition, cracks or small details that give evidence of what once was, contributes to dignifying and reclaiming spaces and histories.
Our cities are threatened and so are we. Urban development under neoliberal and colonial logics homogenizes urban centres, empties them of identity, privatizes public space and imposes control, order and civility. In short, the state does not allow a single place to exist from which it cannot extract profit. Cities are put at the service of elites and capital. Through images we can reflect the identity of neighborhoods, relate to the communities that inhabit them and the social dynamics that may be threatened by processes of gentrification or urban regeneration.
In a way, photography allows us to immortalize, highlight and denounce in the name of aesthetics and anger.
2.- In 'Parasoles' you talk about the scars of the neighborhood and the material resistance of the space. How does your training in urban politics influence the way you see and represent the city?
I suppose that my studies allowed me to conceptualize processes and dynamics that I saw but did not yet know how to name. When I noticed the word 'Parasoles' on the façade of C/Valldonzella, I was able to reach the Rupert Laporta factory, which specialised in 'umbrellas, beach umbrellas, parasols and walking sticks' from the mid-20th century. A reflection of the industrial and working-class roots of the Raval district (La rosa de Foc).
The possibility of understanding the city as a complex system allows us to observe not only architecture or design, but also how neoliberal and colonial public policies influence people's lives, the distribution of space and urban inequalities.
In this sense, it seems important to me to highlight these power relations, the opportunities and exclusions that result from urban planning decisions. It has always worried (and angered) me to see how certain neighborhoods are marginalized and stigmatized, while the people who live in them are not valued for the way they re-signify spaces through their everyday practices.
Ultimately, like many techniques and learning processes, it is about sharpening your gaze. Once you have done that, it is very difficult to look at the city in any other way.
3.- As a resident of the Raval and an activist for the right to housing, how does your photographic work dialogue with your activism? Do you think that art can be a tool of struggle in these processes?
I don't really put photography and activism in dialogue with each other. Although I think they need each other, in my case I still do it as a preliminary work of documentation, experimentation and learning. I am always afraid of falling into extractivism and instrumentalisation, but I think that is why I have to involve my neighbours. Without their history, the image has no soul [a reflection inspired by Lucía Lamata].
It's time to step up.
The very act of making art, any art, is already a political act. When art also points to concrete causes of injustice, urban struggles, forms of resistance... its scope has no limits.
Defending the right to the city is defending our right to occupy the space we have all built together.
Ana Campaña (*1997) is a jurist specializing in urban policies and territorial planning. She is a Raval resident and activist for the right to housing. She is currently investigating and experimenting with different techniques on the processes of urban stigmatisation, spatial injustice and migratory processes in the city. Analogue photography has been a faithful companion during this exciting journey of exploration between the margins. Deeply inspired by her friends, who unhesitatingly push her every step of the way.
