Catalonia Disrupting Reality – Carla

Catalonia independency seems to be in the game now. This nation’s history needs to be explained since the beginning to understand how the political and social situation ended up being like it is today. It would be unfair to let just recent events define the main idea around this delicate topic. A desired of independency for a big part of the population doesn’t appear one day by chance. Let’s go back to some history lessons:

Iberian Peninsula (modern day, Spain and Portugal) had an independent region called Catalonia, with its own language, laws and customs. Which most of them remain until today as a rich cultural background.

In 1150, Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona, married Petronilia, Queen of Aragon forming a dynasty and leaving a primogenitor as inheritor of all territories concerning the region of Aragon and Catalonia.

The modern-day Spain was shaped after the Spanish Secession war where Catalonia was defeated in 1974. The region was annexed geographically, at least it had appeared as one county since then. But, what happened with Catalonia inhabitants?

Every 11^th of September, well-known as the National Day of Catalonia, the population commemorates the falls of Barcelona during the War of the Spanish Secession. The holiday was first celebrated on 1886, was suppressed by Francoist Spain in 1939 and reinstated in 1980 by the autonomous government of Catalonia, the Generalitat de Catalunya, upon its restoration after Francoist State. Our cultural heritage has been attacked and undervalued for a long time. Catalan people are proud of their own roots and have felt the need to fight over the years to maintain even the language, forbidden during several years.

Today, being Catalan’s ranking on the list of the most widely spoken languages in Europe. It is not, however, on the EU’s list of 24 official languages.  The System, that talks about democracy, Europe, doesn’t accept yet a reality felt by a at least 2 million people that are going to express their opinion for a long time, for sure.

As the most recent events show there is a rising citizenship in favour of an Independence declaration, people is just defending their rights to express themselves. Since early October, we have political prisoners. Unprecedented in our recent history. Wait, that’s not true, Francoist Spain did that too…

From my own personal point of view, that is no just a political or economic issue. It’s a matter of identity, of understanding how we are, and being critic with our surrounding and our actual political environment. Spanish government doesn’t take care of Catalonia, and on the other side keeps spoiling its resources disgraced by the actual party corruption. It’s standing out to defend our rights and have a better society for the upcoming generations.

Strength, solidarity, patience, pacifism among others are intrinsic characteristics of Catalan people that just want to have their own right to decide to vote in what is supposed to be a democratic society. We have lived, repression, violence, in compression, media manipulation in the last couple of months.

Uncertainty is approaching where we could become citizens of everywhere and anywhere at the same time. I would like to work around a Dystopic society with a temporary loss of identity. Each individual imaginary shapes this identity in order to keep a connexion with the roots of an entire group alienated on an ephemeral political space. Identity politics play a huge role on redefining the new nation, yet utopian at this point, but impossible to exist in a nearly future.

Loss of identity, individual within the system, individuals to individuals, mutability of individuals, alienation are concepts that I’m thinking about.

Recontextualization, data viz, abstraction and generative art are 4 areas that I would like to dig in to create not only a personal but at the same time critical piece of interactive work.