La Rambla Catalunya exhibits one of the most hidden corners of the city's heart: the interior courtyards of the Eixample blocks. From last Friday until next June 14, the photographic exhibition Ànima Interior can be visited at the height of number 44 of this street in the Dreta de l’Eixample.
The exhibition, promoted by the Rambla Catalunya Merchants Association in collaboration with Venezuelan photographer Bea Schulze, is part of the World Capital of Architecture, celebrated this 2026 in Barcelona. The objective is to show Barcelonans and foreigners what is hidden behind an architectural element as discreet as it is emblematic of the city, a result of the Pla Cerdà. To do this, Rambla Catalunya will host dozens of large-format panels with Schulze's photographs, which are expected to later be moved to the rest of the district's neighborhoods.
To portray the stories of the neighbors
The project was launched at the beginning of 2025. “During my first years in Barcelona I visited an Eixample building and realized that I was actually looking inwards,” recalls Schulze. More than a decade later, Schulze explained her work to Javier López, from the Rambla Catalunya Merchants Association, who did not hesitate to join the proposal. “It seemed powerful to me to give a voice to the Eixample neighbor, who has traditionally been more hidden,” highlights López.
That is why, with the will to jointly create a large collection, during the last year Schulze has contacted several people who live in different neighborhoods of the district, who have opened their homes to her and shown her the views of the block's interior from their patios or windows.
In the long term, the ultimate goal of Ànima Interior is to document the 420 interior courtyards that make up the Eixample. Although it has now started with a representative sample of neighbors, it is planned that the project will advance in phases until a comprehensive map of all the blocks is completed, in order to present it in an exhibition hall.
