When in 2008 the residents of Sant Adrià de Besòs decided in a referendum to preserve the gigantic skeleton of the Besòs thermal power station, the debate about its eventual demolition was buried, but another one was opened: what to do with such a formidable post-industrial legacy? A decade and a half later, the issue seems to have been resolved with the Catalunya Media City project, which is about to receive its first economic boost. But you won't have to wait for this audiovisual hub to materialize to see how the site, disused for more than ten years, comes to life. The announcement by the Manifesta biennial, which has chosen the old thermal building as one of its headquarters for the 2024 Barcelona edition, anticipates the incorporation of this unique space into the metropolitan cultural imagination.
Manifesta has not yet revealed what it will do at the thermal during the festival, between September 8 and November 24. It is known that, at his expense, the art will occupy part of the turbine room and the lot where the chimneys are erected. The biennial knows how to take advantage of these inhospitable post-industrial spaces, as those who enjoyed in 2022 in Pristina (Kosovo) the artistic installations and the performances scheduled in old factories such as the Bric Factory or the Rilindja Press Palace were able to verify . Bold lighting is a key element in these kinds of transformative processes.
It is likely that the Generalitat and the Sant Adrià City Council will consider Manifesta's occupation of the premises as a cultural advance that will serve as a test of future uses of a very complex space due to its location in no man's land (it is the real dead end of the metropolis), although well connected by train and tram.
The three chimneys are not South London's Battersea Power Station, a former power station famous for appearing on the cover of Pink Floyd's Animals album and rehabilitated as a residential and leisure space. They will never enjoy this global projection. But its recovery as a place to visit can be an event for the residents of Sant Adrià, Badalona, Barcelona and the entire Barcelona conurbation. Manifesta 15 (the Catalan one will be the fifteenth edition) wanted its most relevant headquarters to be in metropolitan municipalities, but very close to Barcelona. The chimneys, the Ricarda and the monastery of Sant Cugat meet these requirements.
In the history of fireplaces, in fact, you can find aspects that are very much in tune with the principles of a biennial that proclaims itself as a researcher and instigator of positive social changes. Because there is a suggestive – and feminist – story behind the construction of the chimneys. It was exposed a few days ago in a conference by the journalist of this newspaper, Jaume V. Aroca
The writer of Sant Adrià Javier Pérez Andújar wrote of these that "they are the three chimneys to which I belong, just as an Indian tribe can belong to a sacred mountain". On the other hand, for many Barcelona residents who have not grown up in its shadow, the old central is a very visible protrusion but with almost no emotional ties. Yet.
Next year, for two months, this trident which is the tallest civil building in Catalonia will compete, in some way, with a Sagrada Família that day by day, for the greater glory of God, consolidates its hegemony over the Barcelona landscape. Gaudí is unbeatable, but finding out what a tribe of art nomads can do by delving into the bowels of a hitherto unexplored beast will certainly justify the trip to Sant Adrià.
