Elegía para una casa

Following the death of my grandmother-matriarch Francisca, the infrastructure of care built over generations collapsed and the family home came under sustained real estate speculation leading to its sale and eventual demolition.

This personal story is set against a broader transformation: the contemporary colonialism that pervades the Balearic Islands and other Mediterranean cities. It is a system designed over decades to turn neighborhoods into investment opportunities. This hegemonic model of the ‘productive city’, inherited in the 20th century from the architect Le Corbusier and perpetuated by neoliberal policies, displaces residents, drives up housing prices, and makes any generational continuity unviable. 

The project is structured around two narratives. The first unfolds within the house, centered on my grandmother as the guardian of identity and of a system of care that provided cohesion to the family and neighborhood structures. The second narrative shifts to the Son Espanyolet neighborhood in Palma (Mallorca) and spans more than 70 years of neoliberal territorial policies driven by property speculation and real estate pressure. These practices transform urban space and render neighborhood ties and daily life more vulnerable. 

Certain tactics – such as receiving handwritten notes once a week asking us to sell or let our house, a real estate agent turning up at our door unannounced because they want to buy it, or receiving a blank cheque up to three times to buy our home are some of the common pressure tactics used in the neighbourhood.

After the demolition of the house, I find myself asking why I have been unable to protect this home.

Through a photographic archive comprising images from the family album, documentary photographs, real estate flyers collected over years of unsolicited purchase offers, and other materials I have sought out, I reconstruct a narrative that reflects the consequences of the housing crisis in Spain, in a region profoundly shaped by mass tourism.

Part of this project has been developed and produced as a new body of work for exhibition at Cortona On The Move 2025, with the support of the Institut d’Estudis Baleàrics.