Women will come - 150 years of struggles on the streets of Barcelona

Public spaces are living spaces in constant construction where people occupy and have historically occupied certain roles. Public spaces are gendered, and many women writers have observed and described their appearance, tension, affects, dynamics, struggles and the constant negotiation for social rights. Barcelona has been the perfect backdrop for many women writers who have written and spoken about what it means to be a woman in a city like this one. For many of them, their activism moved seamlessly from the domestic sphere to the public sphere; they are struggles that began with the onset of modernisation and the city’s growth in the nineteenth century and have continued over the decades.

The exhibition does not offer a chronicle or a nostalgic retrospective, nor does it focus on a single class discourse; instead, it offers a diverse yet partial picture of the city. It is a poetic, political journey, a time lapse of a city over a century and a half. It aims to convey what women’s eyes saw, have seen and are seeing today; to open the archives, lift up their voices and listen to their stories.

Curators: Mita Casacuberta, Ingrid Guardiola, Anna Maria Iglesia.

Exhibition coordination: Ingrid Guardiola

Graphic design: Carolina Trèbol

Space design and set-up coordination: Xavi Torrent

Audiovisual production: Alba Cros

Production: Marina Planella López

Production Support: Blanc Produccions

Project Director Barcelona Guest of Honor at FIL Guadalajara: Anna Guitart

Participating artists: Laía Argüelles Folch, Isabel Banal Xifré, Mireia Sallarès, Ester Xargay, Marga Ximenez, Blanca Viñas.

Participating filmmakers: Maria Bareche Baqués, Clara Barfull.

Participating authors: Neus Aguado, Eva Baltasar, Maria Barbal, Mireia Calafell, Nora Catelli, Najat El Hachmi, Paulina Flores, Marina Garcés, Andrea Genovart, Itzíar González, Mercè Ibarz, Maria Isern, Stefanie Kremser, Conxa Llinàs, Dolors Marín, Cristina Morales, Mary Nash, Anna Pacheco, Irene Pujadas, Llucia Ramis, Neus Real, Maria Roig, Isabel Segura, Maria Sevilla, Victòria Szpunberg, Simona Škrabec, Meri Torras, Blanca Llum Vidal.

Documentary material, objects and reproductions: Gretel Ammann, Lola Anglada, Clementina Arderiu, Rosa Maria Arquimbau, Pilar Aymerich, Fernando Barangó-Solís, Carles Barba, Dolors Bargalló, Aurora Bertrana, Francesca Bonnemaison, Llucieta Canyà, Joan Capdevila, Maria Aurèlia Capmany, Gabriel Casas i Galobardes, Comtessa de Castellà, Víctor Català, Milagros Caturla, Mari Chordà, Georgina Cisquella, Teresa Claramunt, Colita, Joan Colom, Amalia Domingo, Mariana Enríquez, Teresa Gibert, Eulàlia Grau, Alejandra Herrera, Lola Iturbe, Carme Karr, Carmen Laforet, Concha Liaño, Lucía Lijtmaer, Ángeles López de Ayala, Helena Lumbreras, Maria Mercè Marçal, Anna Maria Martínez Sagi, Oriol Maspons, Ana María Matute, Margaret Michaelis-Sachs, Joaquim Mir, Anna Maria Moix, Dolors Monserdà, Matilde Muñoz, Anna Murià, Teresa Pàmies, Carlos Pérez de Rozas, Cristina Peri Rossi, Marta Pessarrodona, Irene Polo, Núria Pompeia, Rosa Regàs, Carme Riera, Mercè Rodoreda, Montserrat Roig, Antoni Rovira i Virgili, Santiago Rusiñol, Maria Sant Climent, Josep Maria Segarra, Carles Soldevila, Cèlia Suñol, Rosa Szücs, Pepita Teixidor, Pau Lluís Torrents Roig, Maruja Torres, Blanca Lydia Trejo, Esther Tusquets, Vida Valero, Remedios Varo.

Magazines: Barcelona Metrópolis, Companya, Feminal, Imatges, L’Arch de Sant Martí, La Campana de Gràcia, El Diluvio, La Dona Catalana, L’Esquella de la Torratxa, Lo Gay Saber, La Humanitat, Ibérica, La Ilustración de la Mujer, La Luz del Porvenir, El Poble, La Publicidad-La Publicitat, La Rambla (Esport i Ciutadania), El Sol (Madrid), La Veu de Catalunya, Mujeres Libres, Or y Grana, Papitu, Periódico Libertario, Ressorgiment (Buenos Aires), Última Hora.

Film Licensors: Ignasi Barba, betevé, Esther Casas, Álvaro Ferré, Filmoteca de Catalunya, Lavínia Lisa, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

Image Licensors: Agrupació Fotogràfica de Catalunya, Arxiu de Districte de Ciutat Vella-Casa de la Barceloneta 1761, Arxiu de Districte de Sants, Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat de Barcelona, Arxiu Nacional de Catalunya, Biblioteca Nacional de Catalunya, Ca la Dona (Arxiu Gretel Ammann), CRAI Biblioteca Pavelló de la República (Universitat de Barcelona), Fundació Colita, Fundación Thyssen-Bornemisza, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS), Museu del Cau Ferrat-Consorci del Patrimoni de Sitges, Museu d’Història de Barcelona, Pilar Aymerich, Real Acadèmia de les Bones Lletres, Ricard Lobo.

Acknowledgments: Special thanks to all participating authors and artists, and to Ignasi Barba, Ignasi Barjau and Manuel Huerga.