Secondary Residency
1. L’Hopitalet de Llobregat and culture
L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, with around 278,000 inhabitants, is located in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. With more than 20,000 inhabitants per square kilometer, it is one of the most densely populated cities in Europe. This population density is particularly visible in neighbourhoods such as La Florida, which grew especially in the 1950s and 1960s, with migration from other parts of Spain as part of the industrialisation process, as well as new waves of migration.
Over the last decade, L’Hospitalet has strengthened the role of culture in its local development strategies. In its Municipal Action Plan 2020-23, cultural policies are integrated into the axis of rights, seeking to eliminate barriers to access to culture. Also, in 2017 the Integral Urban Regeneration Plan for Florida was established, with an action plan following a participatory process that includes “Culture and community art”, based on cultural rights and the desire to contribute to a sense of belonging; “Coexistence and community action”; and “Access to housing”.
Secondary residency plays with the idea of "Summer places", applying it to territories that are not part of the collective imaginary as paces where people go to spend a few days of rest.
2. Project goals and implementation
2.1. Main goal and specific objectives
Secondary Residency seeks to question the meaning of public space in cities and to enhance its value. It does so through a project of collective reflection and artistic creation that recognises the specificity of each territory through participatory processes, while also emphasising the reality of neighbourhoods and urban environments that have often been left out of the collective imaginary.
2.2. Development of the project
The project has its origins in L’âge de la tortue, which since 2006 has been inviting artists to carry out creative residencies in the Blosne, a popular neighbourhood in the city of Rennes. In 2016, the association conceived Secondary Residency, which plays with the idea of “summer places” but applied to territories that are not part of the collective imaginary as places where we go to spend a few days of rest. After five editions in Blosne, Brussels, Graz, Lisbon and L’Hospitalet de Llobregat were invited to participate in a cooperation project based on the Secondary Residency methodology with the support of the EU Erasmus+ programme.
La Florida is a neighbourhood with a very high population density, characterised by a diversity of origins and which has often been externally stigmatised for issues related to poverty and insecurity. The preparation phase of the project in La Florida consisted of meetings with the Department responsible for the Integral Urban Regeneration Plan, as well as with various local actors (such as the Escuela de Vida, the Nou Sidecar youth centre, the Contorno Urbano Foundation and various local artists and actors). Trànsit Projectes assumed the coordination functions of the process, in constant dialogue with the City Council and the other key actors in the area. Three focus group sessions were held with children, young people, adults and elderly people from the neighbourhood to discuss the reality of the neighbourhood and its public space, which helped to identify the theme of the residency. The debate made possible to identify often opposing positions. The questions raised were summarised in the concept note “The multiple lives of public space: a meeting space?” which was presented to the three residents of the project.
The trio of residents consisted of Andrea Lería, a Spanish-Chilean artist; Laura García, Councillor for Youth and Equality of L’Hospitalet City Council; and Maria Griñó, a cultural manager and resident of La Florida, who had participated in the previous focus groups. For seven days, they lived together in a rented flat in La Florida, sharing both common work time and informal activities of daily life (breakfasts, meals, shopping, etc.). On the first day, they were visited by the Secondary Residency teams from Rennes and Brussels. The following six days combined numerous walks through the neighbourhood, conversations with neighbours and local agents and intense reflections, reflected daily in a blog and a large-scale map of the neighbourhood, where the many ideas of the process were noted down. From this exercise of coexistence, discovery and reflection emerged the artistic production “Notas a pie de calle: voces de La Florida” (Notes from the street: voices from La Florida). The work is based on multiple citizen responses to the questions “Who is La Florida?” and “What does the public space of La Florida mean to you?”, formulated by the three residents during their meetings with neighbours in the area. In the form of an “archive of written voices”, around twenty answers were fixed on metal plaques at ten points around the perimeter of the neighbourhood, accompanied by miniature portraits created by Andrea Lería.
The production was launched in June 2023, with a collective tour of the ten points where the phrases and portraits are located. Since then, several other visits have taken place and a fold-out map has been distributed, allowing the visit to be carried out autonomously.
Secondary Residency seeks to question the meaning of public space in cities and to enhance its values through collective reflection, artistic creation and participatory processes.
3. Impacts
3.1. Direct impacts
Secondary Residency has contributed to highlighting the diverse life stories and reflections of people from many countries who live together in La Florida. It has created new service points in the neighbourhood, has contributed to a certain sense or pride of belonging and has allowed groups of high school students or local residents to reflect on the value they place on the neighbourhood. The initiative serves to reflect the symbolic value of art in public space and its potential to transform the perception of the environment.
Both the participation in a European project and the presentation of the project to groups and collectives from other Catalan municipalities, and from abroad, have contributed to strengthening cultural relations between L’Hospitalet and the outside world, as well as to the visibility of the city. At the city level, relations have also been strengthened between the different agents in La Florida who participated in the process of the focus groups and in the subsequent residency, and between them and the local government.
3.2. Evaluation
The artistic residency is reflected in a blog, video recordings and photographic reports by professional documentary filmmakers. In addition, each participating city has an independent researcher who analyses the work process and its results, through field observations, interviews and the contribution of a theoretical framework. The five articles entered in the participating cities, together with other analyses, make up the final publication of the project, available here.
An independent evaluator also carries out a qualitative evaluation of the work process, conducting interviews with the three residents at the end of the residency and six months later, combined with other evidence collected during the process.
3.3. Key factors
Several factors have contributed to the success of the project:
- The existence of a clear methodology, derived from previous experience in Rennes and the framework provided by cooperation at European level.
- The adaptation of this methodology to the reality of La Florida through dialogue with local actors, focus groups and the dialogue-based nature of the artistic residency.
- The strong involvement of the municipal administration.
- The dedication of the artist and the trio of residents, with their willingness to explore the neighbourhood, document the research process and produce a piece of art that encourages further dialogue.
- The choice of public space as the subject to be dealt with, as it manages to appeal to the entire population of the area.
3.4. Continuity
Secondary Residency proposes a protocol that adapts to different territories and cities. Its methodology is based on the creation of collaborative networks between agents in the neighbourhood and the generation of a suitable space for the development of the artistic project, at a relatively modest economic cost.
Thus, the degree of replicability is high, although there must always be a committed local team with the capacity to adapt the methodology to the specific reality where it is implemented.
Local government should support the development of the project from a non-interventionist perspective: allowing the free participation of citizens in the focus groups, as well as in the development of the artistic project. Governmental involvement is key to involve a political representative in the residency process, as well as to give legitimacy, to recognise the value of the project and to enable the resolution of practical issues.
An artist, a neighbour and a councillor lived together for a week in a flat in La Florida, sharing working time. The stay ended with the conceptualisation of an artistic creation.
4. More information
L’Hospitalet de Llobregat was a candidate for the sixth UCLG – Mexico City – Culture 21 International Award (November 2023 – March 2024). The jury for the award drew up its final report in June 2024, and requested that the Committee on Culture promote this project as one of the good practices to be implemented through Agenda 21 for culture.
This article was written by Rosa Maria Muga Ocaña, Head of the Culture Department, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Catalonia, Spain.
Contact: rmmuga (at) l-h.cat
Website: www.l-h.cat
