Memories of the Pandemic. We will only get through this together.

"Memories of the pandemic. We will only get through it together" is an exhibition that talks about the past and the future. Memory is built from the present by looking at the past and thinking about the future. Memory is built from the present by looking at the past and thinking about the future. The exhibition is therefore a meeting place for this present under construction. After its passage through the Model with more than 16,000 visitors, it arrives at Montjuïc Castle.

The memories of the pandemic tell us about what happened, what could happen, what we wanted to happen and, also, what we were not allowed to become part of the so-called new normality. The memories of the pandemic as an opportunity to rethink the future, from a moment when time stopped and day-to-day priorities and agendas were turned upside down. What have we learned, what will we do in future crises and what other worlds did we glimpse, and end up losing? The exhibition collects memories, choral and plural, from the citizens of Barcelona, and from everyone who wants to share their own at either of the two locations.

This project dedicated to the memories of the pandemic incorporates in its title the expression "We'll get through it together". More than a statement, rather than a wish, it is one of the results of the research phase of the project. There is the awareness that we need to act together to be able to face and seek to overcome the great challenge that the pandemic posed, and poses. In short, to articulate collective responses, from science, the community and public authorities, to face the great challenges of the century: the climate emergency and social justice, especially in relation to tourism, the social rights, sustainable growth, access to housing and the reduction of inequalities.

While we couldn't leave the house, the balconies were filled with rainbows with a message: "Everything will be fine." It was a message of hope, but by no means an empirically based certainty, although there are things that went, indeed, better than usual, and others that seemed like they had to stay and were so just a parenthesis.

It is therefore about acting, to prevent and to respond to everything that the pandemic took, and made more visible: not only health, but also inequalities or the environment. The witnesses of this pandemic show us that yes, everything can go well, but that we will really only get through it together. The pandemic has exacerbated many of the ills of our societies, but it has also been an example of the articulation of collective responses and responsibility towards, and from, the community, everyone from their possibilities. And this is the great, old, learning.

MEDIATED VISITS

Program of visits with the curators of the exhibition João França and Jordi Mir Garcia and with an invited person who will contribute complementary knowledge and reflections to the exhibition.

Free activity with prior reservation at the following link.

• March 25 at 12:00 with Jordi Serra Cobo, eco-epidemiologist, professor at the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) of the University of Barcelona.
• April 15 at 12:00 with Helena López Vallejo, journalist at El Periódico specializing in communities and neighborhood struggles.
• May 27 at 12:00 with Mercè Darnell, head of the Carotas Basic Needs Program.​
• June 17 at 12:00 with Salvador Macip, professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Leicester.

IMAGINATIONS OF THE PANDEMIC: VIEWS OF YOUNG PEOPLE AND CHILDREN

As a complement to the exhibition, we present a spontaneous and striking perspective on various concepts related to the pandemic that has rocked the world over the last three years.

During the first quarter of 2022, children and teenagers from twenty educational centers in Catalonia, Toledo, Logroño and Alicante explained and drew 22 words related to the covid-19 pandemic such as coronovarirus, pandemic, PCR, isolation, mask, ICU , vaccine We have collected and digitized more than 20,000 definitions and 15,000 drawings. Based on positive knowledge and above all on the imaginary, we have constructed definitions that have been reviewed by linguists, teachers and doctors.

The drawings we reproduce are a selection of the most representative views of 12 terms. They are the imaginaries of the pandemic that have captured schoolchildren from the third grade to the fourth grade of the ESO. Thus, the exhibition offers in each panel a selection of the most suggestive and also fascinating drawings, accompanied by the definitions in 3 languages (Catalan, Spanish and English) of the terms made from children's imaginations.

Idea and direction of the project: Rosa Estopà

EDUCATIONAL PROPOSAL

The exhibition "Memories of the pandemic. We will only get out together" is presented to us as a space for debate and reflection, an opportunity to work with students on different topics related to health, emotional well-being and mental health, the health crises and pandemics and their social response.

And it is from this starting point that educational centers are offered the possibility of mediated visits to the exhibition, as well as carrying out co-creation projects between the center and the Castle's mediation team.

For more information or queries you can contact the mediation service: mediaciocastell@bcn.cat

MORE INFORMATION

•      At Montjuïc Castle, from March 23 to January 7, 2024.
•      Access to the exhibition included with the entrance to the Castle.
•      You can consult the exhibition website and all the complementary materials here