Water, climate, and the sea, in images

The relationship between poetry and visual arts, water and seas, the environmental crisis, and photography from a little-known country such as Albania are the themes of the photography exhibitions launching the new season at the Pati Llimona Civic Center starting September 18.

Built partly over the remains of the ancient Roman city, the Pati Llimona Civic Center is a facility especially focused on audiovisual projects, particularly photographic arts. It regularly programs exhibitions that often explore the crises and concerns of our times.

Now, many of these issues are highlighted through several exhibitions, such as the one that shows the human cost of environmental collapse. It’s a project by the social and documentary photography collective RUIDO Photo, with images by Bruna Cases, Pau Coll, and Edu Ponces. The photographs in Primary (September 18–30) show how extreme climate and resource scarcity force entire populations to migrate and directly fuel social conflicts, economic inequality, and human rights violations.

One of the groups most affected by climate change are Mediterranean fishermen. Their struggles are documented in the project Workers of the Sea, by Carles Palacio and Berta, on view from September 10 to October 25.

Another exhibition, also running from September 10 to October 25, focuses on water—an essential and beautiful element, poetic in itself, capable of bringing both pleasure and satisfaction or pain and destruction, whether through its absence or excess. This is explored in Hidralgia, a project by Ramon Batalla that fuses the classical Greek words hydor (water) and algos (pain).

Remaining in poetic territory, from September 18 to October 25 you can see the works in the second edition of the series Poetry at a Glance, which links photography and poetry. Photographs by Francesc-J. G. Rabella and Maite Jou are paired with poems by Pedro Alcarria, Carla Fajardo, Susanna G. Turigas, M. Antònia Massanet, Montse Ordóñez, Carles Ribó, Amàlia Sanchís, Josep Anton Soldevila, Xavier Soler Ribas, and Gustavo Vega.

Finally, from September 10 to October 25, you can visit Perspectives that Transcend: Visual Resonances from Albania, which features prizewinning photographs from recent editions of the FOKUS International Photography Award, held annually in Albania.

If you’d like to see the new season’s exhibitions at the Pati Llimona Civic Center (though some open a few days earlier, the official joint opening takes place on the afternoon of September 18), head to the Gothic Quarter—but first, check all the details on their website.