IMAGES: ANNA HUIX; BEN ROBERTS (BOTTOM LEFT)


SPAIN


ART & DESIGN Meet the creatives of Poblenou


The seaside neighbourhood in east Barcelona has been brought back to life by galleries and studios taking over once-derelict warehouses. Words: Eddi Fiegel


In Barcelona’s leafy Poblenou district, Pablo Pulido, an Argentinian ceramicist and jazz musician, points to the sky outside his narrow workshop’s open doorway when I ask why he moved here. “We liked the light principally,’ he tells me, “and the closeness to the sea.” The bright Mediterranean sun floods in through the shop’s large windows, bouncing off the whitewashed walls to illuminate the mauve and yellow bowls and cups that line the shelves. Despite his beige work apron, 42-year-old Pablo looks


Clockwise from above: Kema Ceramics founders Daiana and Pablo; animator Asis Percales in his studio; beach volleyball on Poblenou’s Platja de Bogatell; the studio of painter Perico Pastor; eclectic architecture along Poblenou’s Roc Boronat street Previous pages: The Alhambra fortress is a highlight of Granada


as well manicured as a matinee idol. He opened Kema two years ago with his partner Daiana Nuñez Schneider, a Uruguayan ceramicist and industrial designer. Theirs is just one of a new influx of galleries, studios and independent boutiques and coffeeshops that, over the past few years, has garnered Poblenou the moniker ‘the Catalan Hackney’. Bordered by the sea to the south and one of Barcelona’s


major arteries, Avinguda Diagonal, to the north, the area was a powerhouse of the Catalan textile industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By the late 1980s, however, many of Poblenou’s warehouses and factories had been abandoned. Attracted by the large, light-filled studio spaces and relatively low rents, artists soon began moving into the area. Though it’s just 15 minutes north east of Barcelona’s frenetic Las Ramblas by metro, it feels like another world. For Pablo and Daiana, the sense of a genuine community was also part of the area’s appeal. “A lot of our neighbours


have bought things or come and made their own pieces in our workshop,” says Pablo. “Next door, there’s an iron worker’s forge and a guy who repairs bicycles, so people feel a sense of belonging to the neighbourhood.” Poblenou’s mashup of tenants and residents gives the district an atmosphere that locals believe has been lost in some other areas of Barcelona, since the 1990s dawn of mass tourism. Neighbourhood bars and stylish restaurants advertise


three-course menús del día (menus of the day) for around €15. Students chatter at pavement cafes. And the heart of the neighbourhood is characterised by streets lined with gabled factory and warehouse buildings, ornate art nouveau apartment block doorways and angular steel and glass high-rises, now home to art and design colleges, as well as international firms. Dotted among them are independent shops like Guau!, a small gallery and store selling work by local artists, and tall, 19th-century redbrick chimneys left over from Poblenou’s industrial past. Just a few blocks from Kema, muralist and illustrator


Asis Percales shares an eighth-floor studio with animator Gerard Cornella (aka Geco), who worked on the award- winning animated feature Chico and Rita. Their organised, plant-filled studio — open to the public by appointment — is both a home and an office, with vast windows through which the sea can be glimpsed over rooftops. The pair say that Poblenou’s relative tranquillity compared to the crowded city centre is part of the area’s


This is a sample edition. Please click here to subscribe and read more...


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26