FAMUSA

FAMUSA—Fabulous Sacred Mountain—explores the iconography that constructs the landscape of Montserrat (Barcelona, Spain).

Once, European mountains were seen as hostile places. Far from modern mass access, they seemed so distant and dangerous that went generally unnoticed by the population. A legend tells how Montserrat became visible circa 880 A.D. after a group of children saw a light appearing above its hills. Curious, they approached the site and found the image of a virgin engraved in a cave. The event was interpreted as a divine sign and, years later, a monastery was built to worship the location. Since then, it has become more than an ordinary mountain and today, religious symbolism and touristic interest are the main factors driving attention and defining the comprehension of the place. Based on the essay "El Paradís Indicible" by Francesc Roma i Casanovas—a socio-geographical study of the iconic mountain of Montserrat—the project explores the societal conception of the site and how it has influenced the way people relate to it, further shaping the territory itself. 

In the words of Francesc Roma i Casanovas, “Natural environments become landscapes as people interpret them in the light of a specific model, mental image, or certain historical representation. Landscape images create, transform or reconstitute the environment to accommodate it to human ideas such as order, truth, aesthetics, balance, etc. That is why the landscape has—deep down—a moral dimension, it tells us how the world should be like or, rather, what it should look like. Without losing its physical dimension, space is socially mediated and merges into a second nature that is linked to human knowledge”. In that sense, the next questions are suggested.

Which lens is Montserrat seen through and how does it limit—or constraint—its understanding?

Could underlay in the site an unnoticed realm to the one commonly experienced?

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2020

50 copies ed.

Hard cover

Japanese binding

23 cm x 18 cm

90 pages

Shiro Echo 100 gr.