In 2019, photographer Blanca Munt engaged in a neighbourhood chat group created to surveil her own neighbourhood and alert to any potential home burglaries or other suspicious activity. What is initially presented as an effective tool for the neighbours soon becomes a source of speculation, suspicion and paranoia. The seemingly quiet community life in a neighbourhood of well-lit streets and conventional homes founders due to the actual burglaries, but also due to the disintegration of the idea of community when personal security is at stake: mistrust, typically based on suspicious appearance or behaviour, now extends to any neighbours who fail to rigorously conform to the group’s purpose.
With a clean and sober design reminiscent of a real estate or security company brochure, the dispassionate pictures portrayed in Mira-sol Alert intertwine with the mental images stemming from an inflamed rhetoric, which gradually take shape as we learn the self-interested views of the different actors in this landscape –neighbours, suspects, police officers, local authorities–, and which appeal strongly to our fears and contradictions. In her own words, Blanca Munt calls for a “reflection on the tension between the privilege of living in a peaceful place and the constant sense of lurking threat encouraged by our current culture of fear.”
Blanca Munt (Barcelona, 1997) believes in the fusion of photography, design and video as the best way to capture her ability to create and tell stories. She takes interest in issues relating to housing, architecture, periphery, landscape, portraiture and society, and explores the culture of fear and paranoia that inspired the project “Mira-sol Alert” (2020). The project’s photobook won the Fiebre Photobook Dummy Award (2020).
Also, she recently exhibited her project “Sòl i Sostre” (2021) at the 7th edition of the Mirades Photography Festival, held in the Baix Empordà region. She served as an assistant to photographer Tanit Plana, participating in the project “Puber” showcased in La Virreina (2020), and currently works as curator alongside Borja Ballbé for the digital platform “Panorama”, publishing art projects that address topics related to landscape and territory.
