Consider this blog post just one more historical bookmark, a record of one small urban space in one brief moment in human time.
This locale in central Barcelona is constantly evolving (for better or worse) and will most certainly not be the same a year from now, or even next week…
The Place – The History
If you are looking to make or photograph urban art, skate with your homies, score a doobie (or even the harder stuff), play ping pong or basketball, let the kiddos play on the kiddie play park apparatuses, mix with local immigrants, or just sit on a bench and watch the passing humanoids, this is the spot. Look on your city map for Jardins de les Tres Xemeneies. Paral.lel (L2 or L3) is the closest Metro stop, and there are a number of buses that will easily get you there–or you can simply walk or bike, as it is quite centrally located.
Excepting a couple of old machinery pieces-cum-rusty sculptures, the three red brick chimneys (1897-1917) are pretty much all that remain of the power generating station that was operated here by a Canadian company (known colloquially by the Catalans as La Canadenca) during the first half of the 20th century. Perhaps the most interesting and significant historical footnote to this smoky operation was the Catalan worker strike in February and March of 1919 which eventually led to the eight-hour work day in all of Spain.
When I first visited this Park some years ago, I observed what seemed to be a nice mix of folks in the neighborhood–immigrant families from Africa and the Middle East, immigrants from southern Spain, long-time Catalan residents, tourists from elsewhere in Europe and North America, theater-goers, skateboarders, and graffiti artists at work… all calmly mixing it up, or so it seemed to me.
Today, though, the site is in flux, and not necessarily in a positive way. Perhaps, in part, this is due to the COVID effect? Or, perhaps it is just simply lack of municipal attention…
There are unfinished highrises behind the chimneys–tagged on their top floors by entrepid graffiteros, but lending an unfortunate air of abandonment to the zone. These days, a handful of homeless can usually be found setting up temporary camp each evening under the few available covered areas, and the young and immortal use it as a gathering place for an impromptu botellón (alcohol-fueled hanging out). The consequence has been more trash, a urine and feces issue, and more “undesireables” (both the merely perceived ones and the real ones), and local residents who no longer feel safe coming to the park with their families.
In response to complaints, the City has apparently stepped up efforts to sweep the place clean most mornings and the police are sent in to courteously ask that the homeless pack up and move on (as I saw on this day). The entire cement “floor” was painted a sort of pee-yellow recently–but is already mostly scuffed back to its former state. On a positive note, there continues to be a once-a-week open-air market here, along with the occasional concert, art/drama activity, and protest event. So, the space still holds a lot of positive energy and life.
But… there just doesn’t seem to be a major restoration/development plan on the agenda yet for the Jardins de les Tres Xemeneies–at least from what I could find using Sra. Google. The Ajuntament has made some positive improvements recently–but nothing on anything like the scale required for real change. Without some sort of inspired future vision, I fear the continued degradation of this unique corner of Barcelona.
A pity. The place has real potential to be a major focal point for artists, tourists, and local familes alike.
Seagulls dance above the unfinished concrete structures and the three iconic, red brick chimneys that border the park:
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #32, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
Look for the plaque that pays homage (sort of… indirectly) to the 1919 Catalan worker’s strike that led to the eight-hour work day in Spain:
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #8, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
The Artists
Theoretically, those aerosol artists wishing to transfer their visions to the walls of the park need to register with the City and they are assigned a specific panel. In practice, only a small number actually comply, so it has pretty much turned into a free-for-all… have aerosol, will travel. (The folks in the partially-enclosed gym on the northwest border have complained of the paint fumes, such is the lack of control.)
So, as a result of this Wild West attitude, you will see some really amazing pro artwork alongside basic junior high-level tagging. The panels are constantly evolving, changing, mutating, and weathering, as artists paint over what came before. Layer after layer, generation after generation. For the connoisseur, though, this is a necessary element of the peculiar nature and philosophy of public urban art.
At the top of this blog, I tried to assemble the tags of a number of the artists whose work I saw on this day (April 20, 2021) in an attempt to give them a bit of credit and publicity. Tracking them down on Facebook, Instagram, or other social media would be quite the detective task, so if you know any of them, feel free to add a comment and elaborate on their work.
A Photo Tour
On this day, I carried with me the Nikon D850 and three Nikkor lenses–the 14-24 f/2.8, the 24-70 f/2.8, and the 70-200 f/4. I did not carry a tripod as that item can sometimes attract too much attention from the wrong kind of people and it makes it more difficult to move around and compose quickly. So, I dialed up the ISO (usually to around ISO 400) to ensure reasonably fast shutter speeds in aperture-priority mode and went at it whilst handholding the camera. Images were post-processed in either Adobe Photoshop (CS6) and/or Adobe Photoshop Elements as well as the plugin Color Efex Pro.
Lets start with a couple of wide views of the urban art/skateboarding zone. The first photo is looking toward the west (and the gym), the second toward the east (and l’Avinguda Paral.lel):
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #7, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #20, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
The City cleaning crews were just finishing up their sweep of all the bottles and cans from the previous evening’s botellón. I talked briefly with the bigger guy you see in the image and he was of the opinion that the City should just allow the building of more apartments on this spot, such was his disgust for how folks were trashing the park:
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #45, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #55, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
The City police, the Guàrdia Urbana, showed up to ask the handful of homeless to pack up their things. It seemed to be a pretty casual, polite, even routine, encounter. Most Barcelona city vehicles–like these (Prius)–are hybrid or electric:
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #59, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #36, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
On to some close-ups of a few of the panels as they currently exist:
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #10, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #15, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #16, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #17, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #22, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #25, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #27, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #42, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #43, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #46, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #62, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
There was even an impressive “photo panel” to be found. I was unable to track down the website of the artist(s):
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #65, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
This is one of the pieces of old machinery that remain on site. When you visit, there is about a 90% chance you will find the round hole comfortably occupied by transient or homeless folks when you visit since it provides great shelter from the elements:
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #2, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
I arrived to photograph not long after sunrise, so the park was quiet except for the visits by the cleaning crew and the police. But soon after, other human beans began to stir. Skateboarders love this place–there are nice ramps and obstacles to be found. This guy was the first skater to arrive, waiting for his buddies to show. And, of course, the pigeons are ubiquitous:
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #48, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #53, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #58, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #63, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
Then there was the odd non-human visitor… very hairy and very odd, but loving her temporary freedom, I’m sure:
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #56, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
Finally, Donald and Mickey currently hold court at the base of the three chimneys. How long will they be there? How long before they are painted over and buried to make room for another artist’s project? The world and time moves on…
La Plaça de les Tres Xemeneies, #31, El Poble-sec, Barcelona, 2021
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