Toldo Verde

In the context of Franco's developmentalism, a huge number of homes were built on the outskirts of Spain's major cities. Dense urban fabrics, buildings as homogeneous as they are bland, a landscape that identifies a Spain undergoing change, which continues to this day. Architect and researcher Pablo Arboleda presents this imperfect reality in terms of heritage, where the term “heritage” is stripped of idealism to become a mirror that invites society to recognise itself as it is. At the same time, photographer Kike Carbajal documents a Madrid that could be many other cities and from whose bowels emerges a common imagery that elevates strangely familiar scenes to the status of ‘postcards’. The combination of both authors results in a rich exercise in introspection on the paradoxes that our cities hold, always oscillating between vindication and questioning. A leisurely observation and stroll through what, because it is so close, we have never looked at. A present past whose narrative needs gestures that contribute to building a broader, more honest and inclusive image of Spain.