Elegy for a house

The project situates this personal story within a broader process: contemporary colonialism that permeates the territory of the Balearic Islands and the rest of the Mediterranean, designed over decades to turn neighbourhoods into investment opportunities.

This photographic essay addresses the contemporary impossibility of protecting the home. It begins with the figure of my grandmother, a matriarch who sustained domestic life, family ties, and the fabric of the neighbourhood, and how, after her death, the house was exposed to property speculation that ultimately led to its sale and demolition. An urban model that displaces residents, drives up housing prices, and makes any generational continuity difficult.

The research is structured around two narratives. The first unfolds from within the house, centred on my grandmother as the symbolic guardian of memory and a system of care that gave cohesion to the home. With her death, not only does a person disappear, but also the emotional structure that sustained domestic life. The second narrative shifts to the Son Espanyolet neighbourhood on the island of Mallorca. It traces over seventy years of urban transformation driven by speculative planning and property pressure, showing how the environment is transformed to the point where remaining in the neighbourhood becomes unviable.

Both narratives converge on the same question: why have I been unable to keep this house safe?

Part of this project has been developed for exhibition at Cortona On The Move 2025, with the support of the Institut d’Estudis Baleàrics.