La Barceloneta

Photography exhibition tracing La Barceloneta in 1960 through the eyes of Xavier Agramont, author of an extensive documentary archive, at Casa de la Barceloneta 1761.

The exhibition brings together photographs by Xavier Agramont, a photographer who is not widely known to the public but who is the author of an extensive and highly valuable documentary archive. The images belong to the collection of this exhibition space and depict the neighbourhood in 1960: work in the port and at sea, busy streets, local shops and the beachfront merenderos, meeting points where people gathered and socialised. Agramont captures gestures, glances and spontaneous scenes with a strong human dimension.

The visit is conceived as an immersive exhibition, with no screens and no artificial intelligence. The photographs are displayed printed in large format and accompanied by a soundscape created specifically for the exhibition, with its own acoustic design. The context is the Franco dictatorship: while the regime tried to project an image of prosperity, the city lived under strict political and social control. In this working-class neighbourhood of modest housing and curtailed freedoms, shared life in public space functioned as a form of everyday resistance.

The walk through the streets is complemented by photographs of the port from the archive of the Museu Marítim de Barcelona. The proposal is well suited to anyone who wants to get to know mid-century La Barceloneta through documentary testimony, and to anyone looking for a photographic visit with a sound component.