Ruins. A visual motif of the Spanish real estate crisis (ENG/CAT)

Abstract

Throughout history, ruins have represented the traces of fallen empires and post-battle landscapes. Progressively, with the urbanization of the world, there are more and more ruins which are the result of rapid construction that leaves visible traces: viewed from the air they resemble metastases, or scars. Such ruins become garbage, remains that are derived from intensive exploitation of the territory based on the rationale of the accumulation of capital, rather than the interests of the general public or environmental sustainability. Many television reports, movies and photographic works have addressed the visual motif of ruins in the context of the crisis that began in 2008. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the ongoing reflection on the issue, by examining various nonfiction titles that were published after the Auken Report (2009). My objective is to show the abundance of audiovisual representations which, apart from the testimonies, have served as criticisms of the Spanish development model from an environmental perspective and the marked inequality that this model generates.