“We need to promote the architecture we have in Barcelona,” states Mabel Cedrón, a photographer specialized in architectural photography for five years. When this resident of the Sagrada Família neighborhood in Barcelona learned in 2021 that Barcelona would be the World Capital of Architecture in 2026, she thought she could contribute her bit to the promotion of “what we have at home.”
Immediately he began to portray well-known metropolitan buildings such as the Mies van der Rohe Foundation, Casa Vicens, or the Tres Xemeneies, but also others perhaps less common such as La Torre Puig 2, in Plaça d’Europa, 34, in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, or the Antares Building, in Plaça de Llevant, in the Barcelona district of Sant Martí. This is how he began to create the series 2026 – DESTÍ BCN, which consists of twenty images. Of these, he exhibits 16 until February 25 at the Centre Cívic Sandaru in the Sant Martí district. “I wanted to focus on monumentality, the relationship between light and space,” he says. In fact, the photographer celebrates that the exhibition has been selected to be part of the programming of the World Capital of Architecture in 2026.
The exhibition has previously been shown in various civic centers in Barcelona such as Drassanes, la Teixonera, el Guinardó and, in April, it will stop at Casa Groga. Sharing his photographs has served to confirm what he suspected: "We are running around putting out fires all the time and we don't stop to look at the buildings around us and suddenly people see the exhibition and say 'Wow, I live next door to it!'".
One of the buildings that can be seen in the exhibition and that, according to Cedrón, causes more confusion, is the Antares Building by Odile Decq, inaugurated in 2022: "Perhaps people don't know it because it's recent, but look, it's in front of the Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona, at the Fòrum". Cedrón acknowledges that through the camera lens he plays with the viewer. "Everyone recognizes the Hotel Arts because it has a cube shape, but my photo is taken in triangular perspective; it's like a game," he points out.
But according to this photographer, there is an underlying issue: “In Catalonia, we know few buildings, we have stuck with the Modernist ones and we don't think about what I call ‘silent architecture’.” To try to break this dynamic, the photographer often gives workshops to children and families to instill curiosity about their surroundings. Recently, in January, she held the activity Draw your favorite building at the Guinardó Civic Center to foster creativity, interaction, and culture.
About the author
Mabel Cedrón was born in Galicia, but has lived for years in the Sagrada Família neighborhood. Her work, internationally recognized with numerous awards, stands out for reinterpreting the built space with a unique and contemporary vision. Author of the internationally awarded photobook Fragments of an Ephemeral Space, her career reflects a constant commitment to visual excellence.
If you visit his website, you can see photographs of spaces such as Casa Gomis, Espai Xavier Corberó or La Ciutat de la Justícia.
