Travesía de Vigo_ is a work around a street in Vigo. In the evolution of this street we can see how the rural (traditional settlements) lives side by side with the urban (new ones). They have no relation and it is more evident in a building called “cricket hole” (grilleras) which are council flats. Modern Movement influences it. The building has a good reputation and it is considered a good example of architecture. But people who don’t live there think it is ugly. On the other hand, most of the owners have a positive feeling about their flats.

What this building makes clear is that the construction is inappropriate for the people in that area. This building is not a problem in itself, but in relation to the place where it is located. And to the people who is made for.

The two videos “Parking” and “Emma film stills” refer to this question. They use a form of representation different from the one we are used to. I try to relate the building from the point of view of the inhabitants, to see it as they see it everyday, as an object used not as an object to put in the architecture books.

Parking shows the building from outside. We can neither see the dimensions, nor the outside appearance but the traces of life, the clothes, the paint, the changes people make on the outside walls… and these “inappropriate changes” are cleaned off in the video as we pass by them. This effect is similar to the abstraction we do when we see something familiar. We forget the differences, it is just our space.

The representation of the inner space is made with the same logic. “Emma film stills” shows an apartment from the point of view of one owner, seen thorough her eyes. It only shows (through film stills) what she wants me to show. My decision isn’t based on a prohibition, but it is a way to interpret her point of view, to show the used space, not the objective one (as we know it isn’t possible to be objective anymore).
The inner space is open to outer space. The things she likes most are: first the possibility to see the sea from there, then the old people who meet in the backyard, the sun, as the flat has exterior windows in all rooms and so on. She doesn’t speak about the meters, the materials, and the luxury standards we are used to hearing about when we see a flat.