On November 18, the exhibition CELDA NÓMADA, personal project by the architect and one of the best professional architectural photographers, Adrià Goula Sardà, opens at the H2O Gallery in Barcelona, Spain. It is an investigation of the memories accumulated in that place and in the family and personal memories.

The nomadic cell is a project that ends up producing a series of reflections on the cell space and the model prison in different formats (photography, collage, frottage, video, drawing, etc.) together with installations in the landscape that function as an act cathartic with respect to this past.
Through the traces fixed in the space of the cell, Adrià Goula Sardà delves into the relationships that arise between what has been built and what has been lived, between the physical elements that surround us and the memories that they generate.

The anchoring to some specific events and places vanishes in favor of a drawing in the landscape as the only testimony that connects those moments of his grandfather in the Modelo prison in Barcelona as a reprisal for the dictatorship.
 

Description of project by Adrià Goula Sardà

The cell is freed from all its weight, from its oppression, and becomes a light memory, where the walls, the prison and the entire city disappear. The cell travels with us, accompanies us forever, converted into a memory crossed by air and nature.

The anchoring to some specific events and places fades in favor of a drawing in the landscape as the only testimony that connects those moments of my grandfather in the Modelo prison in Barcelona as a victim of the political repression by the dictatorship, and a new feeling of freedom.

Access to the cell where my grandfather had been taken allows me to search for the memories accumulated in that place and in family and personal memories. Through the traces fixed in the space of the cell, I enter into the relationships that arise between what is built and what has been lived, between the physical elements that surround us and the memories that they keep.

A project that ends up producing a series of reflections on the cell space and the Modelo prison in different formats (photography, collage, frottage, video, drawing, etc.) together with some installations in the landscape that function as a cathartic act regarding this past.

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Dates
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Opening.- Thursday 18th of November at 18h⁣. Talks.- Fridays 26/11, 3/12, 10/12, 17/12 at 18h⁣. Exhibition.- To 23th December 2021⁣. Opening hours.- From Monday to Friday 16h - 20h.
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Location
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Galeria H2O, Verdi Street - 52, Barcelona, Spain.
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Photography
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Adrià Goula Sardà is an architect (ETSAB, 2000) and since 2004 combines architectural photography with personal works of an interdisciplinary nature. As an architectural photographer, he has completed more than two thousand commissions for renowned architects and for various public and private institutions, both nationally and internationally.

His photographs have been published in multiple magazines, monographs, books and specialized publications. In 2023 he was curator of the book Survey Barcelona, ​​commissioned by the Barcelona City Council to offer a photographic overview of the actions carried out in the city during the last eight years.

He currently teaches the Master of Architecture at La Salle Campus Barcelona – URL and the Master of Landscape Design. He was a professor at Elisava in the subject of Space Communication between 2015 and 2019, and a professor of architectural photography at the Escuela Sert of the COAC between 2010 and 2015.

His personal work is based on photography, which functions as a starting point, as notes on certain topics of interest that are later deepened and expanded through works in different formats, such as installation, sculpture, drawing or video.

He has participated in conferences, talks and workshops at different congresses and schools of architecture such as ETSAB, ETSAV, IED, Elisava, Eina, the University of Alcalá, the University of Navarra, the School of Architecture of Umeå (Sweden), the Bienal de Arquitectura de Buenos Aires 2017, the Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea and will be a speaker at the next UIA congress, which will be held in Barcelona in July 2026.

In 2011, the Esteyco Foundation published the monographic book De-Construcción, in which images of elements under construction were compared with elements under demolition, creating visual parallels between them.

Awards and recognitions.-

-His work Re-Edificatoria, about buildings under rehabilitation, was part of the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2016, awarded the Golden Lion.
-Received the Bienalba Award for Photographic Production in Architecture at the 2017 Buenos Aires Architecture Biennial.
-In 2020 he received the Silver and Bronze Lux awards in the Architecture and Interior Photography category.
-In 2021 he was awarded in the Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism in the photography section.
-An image from the Cota 0 project, about the floods in Valencia, was a finalist in the AENA25 Awards and was exhibited at Las Naves de Gamazo in Santander, while the complete project was presented at the ArtPhotoBcn26 Festival at the DHub in Barcelona with the H2O Gallery.

Exhibitions.-

-The Monochroms project was exhibited at Arts Santa Mònica on the occasion of Art Photo Bcn (2020). -Participated with the Càmera Glòries installation in the Barcelona Model Architecture Festival (May 2022)
-The multidisciplinary project Cel·la Nòmada, arising from an investigation into the cell of the Barcelona Model prison in which his grandfather was imprisoned during the dictatorship, has participated in group exhibitions at the Felícia Fuster Foundation (October 2020), at Lab36 at the Senda Gallery (June 2020), at MAC (Mataró Art Contemporani, February-March 2022), and was the subject of a monographic exhibition at the Gallery H2O (2021). It has also evolved into new proposals presented at the Lluèrnia Festival (November 2022), at the La Bianyal Festival (October 2022) and at an exhibition in Cal Xerta de Sant Pere de Riudebitlles (July 2022).
-The Dream City project has been exhibited in the Galería Antoni Pinyol (May 2023), in the Centro Cívico Pati Llimona in Barcelona (September 2023), in the DHub in Barcelona as part of the Art Photo Bcn Festival (October 2023) and in the Festival Fonament 2026 in Calonge (October 2025).

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Published on: November 16, 2021
Cite:
metalocus, EDWIN GUAILLA
"A light memory, where the walls, the prison and the entire city disappear. Nomadic Cell by Adrià Goula Sardà" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/a-light-memory-where-walls-prison-and-entire-city-disappear-nomadic-cell-adria-goula-sarda> ISSN 1139-6415
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