Blanca Munt
Sòl i Sostre
30 November - 6 December 2020



The need to live under a roof and somehow be protected, has existed since the advent of human beings. It is something inherent in our condition and therefore often limits our way of living, inhabiting and understanding spaces and everything around them. Living under a roof always means living on a floor. We have never had trouble appropriating land and becoming owners, because the will to live often becomes a necessity and therefore a yearning for a right.

Sòl i sostre focuses in a conceptual way on the self-construction processes that took place around the 50s and 60s in the neighborhood of Les Planes, Barcelona. These constructions were erected by immigrants from Spain who came to work and families from Barcelona who left from neighborhoods such as El Carmel, La Perona or Montjuïc.

Due to the law of land and roof, it could be said that the neighborhood was created indirectly. They could not demolish the houses, if after 48 hours they already had a roof, so the families often built at night and in communities under precarious conditions. These families settled in legal loopholes, where no one could move them, and built with cheap materials without any apparent order, simply for survival instinct. These constructions exposed in their basic structure, have been modeled and conditioned under the influence of time.

The structure of this project is based on three parts:
    ·Analog scultoric pictures with bricks taken from Las Planas
    ·Night pictures of the construction of Las Planas
    ·Texts extracted from the Ley de 12 de mayo de 1956 sobre régimen del suelo y ordenación urbana (Law regarding the Land and Urban Development Regime from 12 May 1956).


Texts

I. El urbanismo español se rige por una serie de disposiciones que, promulgadas en muy diferentes fechas, no integran un conjunto orgánico.

II. El planeamiento es la base necesaria y fundamental de toda ordenación urbana.

III. El régimen jurídico del suelo encaminado a asegurar su utilización conforme a la función social que tiene la propiedad, resulta el cometido más delicado y difícil que ha de afrontar la ordenación urbanística. Y se impone, sin embargo, efectuarlo, precisamente porque si la propiedad privada ha de ser reconocida y amparada por el Poder público, también debe armonizarse el ejercicio de sus facultades con los intereses de la colectividad.

IV. Al regular el orden y los sistemas de ejecución de los planes, así como las formas de gestión, se articula un sistema de máxima flexibilidad. La acción urbanizadora debe desarrollarse conforme a programas de actuación, preparados para períodos de cinco años, y a declaraciones de prioridad para la urbanización. Se trata, con ello, de orientar el esfuerzo urbanístico hacia los sectores de preferente utilidad y evitar los daños de las urbanizaciones desordenadas, emprendidas bajo la presión de intereses particulares y, en muchos cosos, estancadas en estado rudimentario.

V. Si todos los preceptos de la nueva normativa tienden en última instancia, a promover y facilitar la construcción mediante la disponibilidad de solares a precio justo, como resultado esperado de la ordenación del suelo y ejecución de las urbanizaciones, algunas medidas, además, se encaminan directamente a fomentarla.

Blanca Munt realized that the best way to convey the ability to create and tell stories was through photography. That is why she decided to study the Degree in Photography and Contemporary Creation at IDEP Barcelona (2017-2020). Her works are developed in different lines of research, which takes her from author photography to advertising photography. She also experiments with video and is interested in expanding her knowledge in the field of editorial graphic design.

She’s interested in topics such as housing, architecture, periphery, landscape, portraiture and society and she’s researching about the culture of fear and paranoia, which has led her to carry out the project “Alerta Mira-sol” (2020).

Currently she works as an assistant with the photographer Tanit Plana and she’s involved in two of her projects: "Puber" which will be exhibited in October 2020 at La Virreina and "Part" which is part of the cycle Escenes in L'auditori Barcelona that will be held in March 2021. She also collaborates with the digital platform Panorama, in the search for artistic projects that address issues related to landscape and territory and in establishing a first contact with the proposed artists. Blanca Munt’s work has been published in the digital magazine Broad Magazine with a series of images made in Menorca under the title of “Modern Cavalry” (2020).