Espiello 2025 #2: Memory, Cinema, and the Festival

by | Mar 7, 2025 | Culture, Film Reviews, Geo-Storytelling, Pedagogy, Spain

Inhabiting Oblivion, Preserving Memory

For twenty-two years, Espiello has transformed the Sobrarbe region of the Spanish Pyrenees into a site of cinematic reflection, where ethnographic documentary serves as both a mirror and a bridge. This year’s edition, themed Memoria: Habitando el Olvido (Memory: Inhabiting Oblivion), invites audiences to engage with films that explore the fragility of cultural memory, the ways in which histories are preserved, erased, or reinterpreted, and how communities negotiate their pasts in the present.

Memory, as both a concept and a lived experience, is deeply tied to geography. The landscapes of the Pyrenees hold the echoes of oral traditions, historical migrations, and political struggles. At Espiello, these landscapes intertwine with cinematic narratives, reminding us that memory is not just about the past—it is an ongoing, dynamic process that informs identity, place, and belonging.

This year’s Espiello takes on new urgency as societies worldwide grapple with collective memory and the forces of historical amnesia. Whether through political upheaval, climate change, or urban transformation, communities are continuously renegotiating their relationship to the past. This year’s films serve as testimonies to that process, ensuring that voices, places, and traditions that might otherwise fade into obscurity remain present in the cultural consciousness.

As Sobrarbe welcomes filmmakers, anthropologists, and audiences once again, the festival’s imagined geography takes shape, offering a space where cultures connect through film, discussion, and shared experience.

 

The Imagined Geography of Espiello: A Festival as a Cultural Crossroads

Like previous editions, Espiello 2025 is more than a festival—it is a temporary village, a community built through storytelling. Over the course of ten days, Boltaña becomes a gathering point where the boundaries between local and global, past and present, dissolve. The festival functions as a living ethnographic space, where filmmakers from across the world bring their own landscapes and histories, mapping their experiences onto Sobrarbe’s mountainous terrain.

This ephemeral yet enduring sense of place is what makes Espiello unique. Unlike urban film festivals with sprawling venues and industry-driven programming, Espiello maintains an intimate, community-oriented atmosphere. The festival’s sections—Espiello Pirineos, Espiello d’Arredol, Anvistas, Falorias, and Cachimalla—reinforce a commitment to regional storytelling while connecting with global ethnographic cinema. In each screening and discussion, the festival becomes a meeting ground where different ways of knowing and remembering take center stage.

This year’s theme, Memory: Inhabiting Oblivion, deepens Espiello’s role as a site of historical reflection. What does it mean to inhabit oblivion? How do communities make sense of what has been forgotten or erased? These are not just questions for historians or anthropologists—they are questions for all of us, as individuals and as members of collective identities that are shaped by what we choose to remember.

 

Film Selections: Mapping Memory through Cinema

The official competition lineup features 16 carefully selected documentaries from nearly 500 submissions, each offering a perspective on memory’s role in shaping identity. These films span continents, cultures, and histories, but they are united in their exploration of how memory is woven into the fabric of everyday life.

Here are the selected films for Espiello 2025:

“Sau: la memòria submergida” (Sau: The Submerged Memory) – An exploration of the remnants of a flooded Catalan village, questioning what is lost and what remains when a place disappears.

“Minga en Tenaún” – A Chilean documentary about the minga tradition, in which entire communities come together to move houses across great distances, symbolizing the migration of both people and memories.

“El arte de los analfabetos” (The Art of the Illiterate) – A Spanish film examining oral storytelling traditions and the power of non-written histories in preserving cultural heritage.

“La jeune fille, les chouettes et les hommes lions” – A documentary from Chad that delves into indigenous folklore and its role in environmental knowledge.

“Las Voces del Olvido” (Voices of Oblivion) – A Mexican documentary featuring testimonies of elders whose oral histories challenge official narratives of national history.

“Echoes of the Steppe” – A Kazakh documentary exploring the impact of Soviet collectivization on nomadic communities and how their descendants reconstruct cultural memory.

“Griot Chronicles” – A West African documentary on how oral historians preserve and transmit community identity through music and storytelling.

“The Silence of the Land” – A French-Belgian collaboration investigating the displacement of rural populations due to urban expansion and its effects on generational memory.

“Tattooed Histories” – A Japanese documentary exploring the cultural significance of traditional tattoos as symbols of identity and resistance.

“El Camino del Maíz” (The Path of Corn) – A Guatemalan documentary on the role of corn in Indigenous worldviews and the threats posed by agricultural industrialization.

“Tierra de Nadie” (No Man’s Land) – A documentary from Palestine chronicling how changing borders impact personal and collective memory.

“The Water We Remember” – A Canadian documentary examining Indigenous water protectors and the spiritual connections to ancestral waters.

“Threads of Exile” – A Portuguese film following the stories of exiles from colonial Angola, connecting personal histories to larger political changes.

“La Memoria que Canta” (The Memory That Sings) – A Peruvian documentary about Andean musicians who preserve historical narratives through song.

“Forgotten Names” – A Polish documentary reconstructing family histories lost during World War II through recovered letters and documents.

“Daughters of the Desert” – An Iranian documentary profiling women poets who use literature as an act of defiance and remembrance.

“The Border’s Echo” – A US-Mexico documentary exploring the stories of migrants and how they carry their histories across shifting borders.

Each of these films presents a distinct vision of memory, whether through the landscapes that shape it, the voices that carry it, or the struggles to preserve it in the face of erasure.

The Siñal d’Onor Espiello will be awarded to the Asociación por la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica de Aragón (ARMHA), recognizing their work in rescuing Spain’s forgotten histories. Meanwhile, Eugenio Monesma, a lifelong documentarian of Pyrenean traditions, receives the Siñal Mayestros, honoring his dedication to cultural preservation through film.

 

Beyond the Screen: Espiello as a Community-Engaged Festival

Espiello is not confined to the darkened theater. It extends into public discussions, artistic exhibitions, and educational workshops that turn the entire region into an immersive learning experience. Among the standout activities this year:

Theatrical Performance – “Olvido” by Biribú Teatro, a play that humorously unpacks the bureaucratic archiving of history, questioning what is remembered and what is left behind.

Exhibitions on Historical Memory curated by ARMHA, including Mujeres Republicanas. Un Sueño Frustrado (Republican Women: A Frustrated Dream) and Una Utopía Necesaria. La Educación en la II República (A Necessary Utopia: Education in the Second Republic).

Cine bajo las Estrellas (Cinema Under the Stars), where selected documentaries will be screened in small villages throughout Sobrarbe, reinforcing the festival’s rural and communal ethos.

Collaborations with the University of Madrid and Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, bringing students and scholars into direct dialogue with filmmakers.

The festival’s commitment to linguistic diversity is evident in the Espiello Agora x l’Aragonés section, celebrating films produced in Aragonese, a language that has fought against historical erasure. The screening of “Baitico, l’ombre-libro de la Valle Bielsa”, documenting one of the last native speakers of the Belsetán dialect, highlights the fragile yet resilient nature of cultural memory.

 

Espiello 2025 as a Living Archive

At its core, Espiello is an archive in motion—a living, breathing documentation of memory, identity, and place. In its twenty-second edition, the festival reaffirms its role as a custodian of intangible heritage, a space where cultures reflect on themselves and on each other through the lens of documentary filmmaking.

As audiences settle into the ochre and black seats of the Palacio de Congresos, the festival’s signature brass mortar sounds, signaling the beginning of another screening, another journey into memory. And for those who participate—filmmakers, scholars, and locals alike—Espiello is not just a festival. It is a communal act of remembering, a place where forgotten stories find voice, and where the past becomes an ever-present guide to the future.

Bienvenidos a Espiello 2025. Let the festival begin.

Espiello 2025 #1: Film, Place, and Cultural Geography

by | Mar 1, 2025 | Culture, Film Reviews, Geo-Storytelling, Pedagogy, Spain

A Festival That Transforms Place

Each spring, in the heart of the Pyrenees, a film festival reshapes the small town of Boltaña into a space of cultural exchange. The Espiello International Ethnographic Documentary Festival is more than a showcase of films; it constructs an imagined geography—a village where filmmakers, scholars, and audiences engage in a shared exploration of human experience.

Since its inception in 2003, Espiello has positioned itself as a bridge between anthropology, filmmaking, and community storytelling. Its name, meaning “mirror” in Aragonés, reflects its function: a space where diverse cultures see themselves and others, engaging in a dialogue about representation, identity, and change. More than just an event, Espiello is an imagined place, a temporary village where cultural narratives are lived, exchanged, and remembered.

The transformation of Boltaña into Espiello reflects a broader pattern seen in temporary cultural geographies, where festivals momentarily reshape the meaning of a location. Just as other major festivals like Sundance or Sheffield DocFest generate alternative mappings of their urban and rural settings, Espiello reconfigures Sobrarbe as a center for cultural dialogue. Unlike large metropolitan festivals, however, Espiello’s impact lingers within a smaller, more intimate environment, where the community actively engages with the narratives it helps to host.

The Imagined Geography of Espiello

Place is more than location; it emerges from relationships, narratives, and lived experiences. Espiello exists beyond the stone walls of Boltaña, shaped by the collective imagination of those who take part. The festival organizers have crafted an imaginary village, mapping out symbolic roles and spaces that give Espiello an identity beyond the physical.

In this village, award-winning filmmakers become “mayors,” jurors serve as “council members,” and festival attendees actively shape the festival’s evolving story. The streets of this metaphorical town are named after past winning documentaries, and every edition of the festival becomes another layer in its growing history. Espiello is both real and symbolic, demonstrating how a cultural event transforms space into a meaningful, participatory geography.

The festival’s spatial dynamics resemble other forms of ephemeral place-making, where temporary events leave lasting impressions on landscapes. While major festivals create short-lived economic hubs, Espiello fosters a cultural memoryscape, a space where storytelling builds upon itself year after year. This approach positions the festival within the broader discussion of how cultural events generate a sense of belonging even in places where participants have no permanent ties.

 

Ethnographic Film as a Medium of Place-Making

Ethnographic documentaries do more than record cultures; they construct interpretations of place, identity, and belonging. The films shown at Espiello offer windows into the lived experiences of people across diverse landscapes, revealing more than their daily lives but the broader cultural, economic, and historical forces that shape them.

Through self-representation, Espiello challenges traditional ethnographic paradigms that have historically relied on outsider perspectives. Instead, the festival prioritizes films where communities tell their own stories, shifting the balance of representation and reinforcing the idea that place is not something to be observed from a distance but experienced and articulated from within.

This approach is significant in a world where cultural narratives are often shaped by dominant media industries. Espiello amplifies voices that might otherwise be overlooked, highlighting rural, Indigenous, and marginalized communities whose stories challenge mainstream assumptions about identity and change. The festival’s commitment to reflexivity ensures that ethnographic film remains a dialogue rather than a static representation, allowing both filmmakers and audiences to critically engage with questions of cultural authenticity and agency.

The role of ethnographic film in mapping cultural landscapes is crucial. The camera functions as an instrument of place-making, capturing and framing realities that are sometimes invisible to those outside of them. Many films presented at Espiello contribute to a collective visual archive, documenting how places evolve, how communities struggle and survive, and how identity is negotiated within changing environments.

 

The Local Impact of Film Festivals: Sobrarbe as a Case Study

Espiello is deeply rooted in the local geography of Sobrarbe. Film festivals, particularly those with an ethnographic focus, have the power to redefine the cultural and economic landscapes of the places that host them. For Sobrarbe, Espiello is more than an annual event—it is a catalyst for cultural engagement, education, and economic sustainability.

Unlike major urban festivals, Espiello brings high-caliber documentary filmmaking to a rural community, demonstrating that cultural events need not be confined to metropolitan centers. It offers an alternative model where film serves as a tool for rural development, bringing tourism, academic engagement, and local pride to an area that has historically been on the margins of Spain’s cinematic and cultural circuits.

Moreover, by integrating educational initiatives, community discussions, and exhibitions, Espiello extends its impact beyond the festival itself. Schools, local organizations, and residents become part of the dialogue, engaging with the themes and films presented. In doing so, the festival strengthens local identity while connecting Sobrarbe to broader conversations about ethnography, representation, and storytelling.

The festival’s impact extends to how Sobrarbe is perceived externally. Just as ethnographic documentaries help frame the cultural identity of distant places, Espiello shapes how the Pyrenean region is understood by audiences far beyond Spain. By curating films that explore not only Sobrarbe’s cultural landscape but also those of similar rural communities across the world, the festival contributes to a re-mapping of place in global cultural networks.

 

Espiello as an Evolving Cultural Geography

Espiello demonstrates that film festivals shape cultural landscapes, serving as spaces of exchange where identities are formed, histories are preserved, and new ways of belonging emerge. By constructing an imagined geography where filmmakers, audiences, and local communities intersect, Espiello expands the meaning of place itself.

It is more than a showcase of ethnographic documentaries; it is an active site where place is made through storytelling, shared experiences, and the ongoing dialogue between tradition and transformation. Espiello reminds us that cinema is not only about representation but about participation—about creating spaces where cultures are not merely observed but actively lived and understood.

For those who attend, Espiello is more than a festival in Sobrarbe. It is a village, a community, an experience—one that continues to grow, adapt, and reflect the world it seeks to illuminate. The imagined geography it creates does not vanish once the festival ends. It lingers in the minds of participants, in the continued dialogue between filmmakers and audiences, and in the evolving identity of the region itself.

The festival offers a model for how temporary cultural spaces leave lasting imprints, shaping the landscapes they inhabit and the communities that participate in them. Espiello, in its ephemeral yet enduring nature, is a testament to the power of film in shaping not only how we see the world—but how we belong to it.

Bridging Briet

by | Dec 16, 2024 | Book Reviews, Geo-Storytelling, Geographers, Spain

Review of El Pirineo sin Briet 

by Ánchel Belmonte Ribas and Lise Laporte

In 2017, I walked for nearly forty days along the GR-11, the famed Transpirenaica footpath, tracing the Pyrenees on the Spanish side, end-to-end, from Irun to Cap de Creus. Alongside Sonia Ibáñez Pérez, I traversed the Basque Country, Navarre, Aragón, Andorra and Catalonia with the goal of reciprocating the longer five-month walk we completed along my own birthplace mountains–the Appalachians–back in 2013*. We were walking her mountains.  Walks were–and still are–our mode of inquiry, our way of knowing a place–albeit by making mere transect lines through both the complex human and natural landscapes and layers.  

The Transpirenaica walk left me wanting more of the Pyrenees—not just for the physical challenge but for the way it deepened my connection to its landscape and stories. Seven years later, now living in Sobrarbe in Alto Aragón, in the shadow of the Pyrenees and learning Aragonés, I’ve embarked on a new expedition—a deeper dive into the region’s human geographies and how they intersect with its wild beauty.

Reading El Pirineo sin Briet, by geologist Ánchel Belmonte Ribas and cultural expert Lise Laporte, feels like an extension of that journey—a next step in a way of seeing the Pyrenees not just as a place of physical challenge but as a shared cultural and natural treasure. This is a book that transcends time and disciplines. At its heart, it is a celebration of Lucien Briet, the early 20th-century photographer, writer, and explorer whose images and advocacy shaped how the Pyrenees are imagined, experienced, and, most crucially, conserved.

This book is an homage to Briet’s enduring vision, but it is also much more: it is a story of change, both in the landscape and in how we perceive it. It bridges art and science, memory and modernity, and asks us to consider what the Pyrenees mean in an age of unprecedented environmental transformation.

 

Lucien Briet: A Visionary and Advocate

For those, like me, who are relative newcomers to the Pyrenees, Lucien Briet (1860-1921) is both an anchor and a touchstone—a figure whose vision helps us understand the enduring allure of these mountains. Born in Paris, Briet was not merely a traveler but a pireneísta, a passionate student and lover of the Pyrenees. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he ventured deep into the region, capturing its grandeur through thousands of photographs and detailed writings that revealed its cultural and ecological essence.

Briet’s photography opened the Pyrenees to audiences far beyond its summits and valleys, bringing alive a wilderness that might otherwise have remained invisible to ever-growing urban audiences. His artistry framed the mountains as places of significance—spaces deserving not only admiration but protection. Yet Briet’s impact went far beyond the photographic.  His 1913 book, Bellezas del Alto Aragón, chronicled explorations through Ordesa valley, along the Ara river, and into the Mascún canyon and Escoaín gorges, alongside iconic sites like the Peña Montañesa, the Marboré massif, and the Sierra de Guara.

Most notable, Briet was one of the earliest advocates for conservation, recognizing the risks posed by industrial expansion and unchecked tourism. His tireless efforts helped pave the way for the creation of Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park in 1918—one of Spain’s first protected areas and a living monument to his legacy.

In El Pirineo sin Briet, Belmonte and Laporte center Briet’s work as both a cultural bridge and a moral imperative. They revisit the exact places Briet once photographed, offering not just comparisons but invitations to reflect on what has changed and what remains. By curating Briet’s vision alongside their own contemporary explorations, the authors remind us that landscapes—like heritage—are never static but require our active participation to preserve.

 

The Changing Landscape of the Pyrenees 

At the heart of El Pirineo sin Briet lies an exploration of the sweeping transformations that have shaped the Pyrenees over the past century. Drawing on Ánchel Belmonte’s geological precision and Lise Laporte’s cultural insights, the authors provide a multidimensional portrait of a landscape in flux. Each carefully curated chapter uncovers new layers of adaptation, resilience, and interconnected change.

The Pyrenees: A Stage of Change

The Pyrenees are presented as a dynamic stage where natural forces and human activities intertwine, shaping valleys, peaks, and rivers into evolving narratives. By tracing this interplay, the authors emphasize the mountains’ role as both a witness to and participant in centuries of change.

A Brief Recent Climatic History of the Pyrenees

Climate shifts over the last century have left their mark on the Pyrenees, from subtle changes in temperature to more pronounced shifts in precipitation patterns. These variations ripple through ecosystems, reshaping glaciers, altering vegetation, and redefining rivers. 

The Landscape That [Almost] Doesn’t Change

Some elements of the Pyrenees appear impervious to time—ancient rock formations and ecosystems that have withstood millennia. The juxtaposition of these constants with areas undergoing rapid transformation invites reflection: how long can these enduring features remain untouched in a world of accelerating change?

Summits and Slopes: Spaces of Transition

High-altitude zones of the Pyrenees, where life exists on the edge, emerge as fragile yet revealing spaces. Changes in vegetation creeping higher and signs of erosion accelerating point to the impacts of climate shifts even in these extreme environments.  Photographs of San Nicolás de Bujaruelo capture this convergence of natural and cultural landscapes. The medieval bridge over the Río Ara stands as a timeless testament to human connection with the mountains, inviting a deeper contemplation of the relationship between preservation and transformation.  The Transpirenaica crosses the bridge.  

Rivers: The Great Connectors

Rivers thread through the Pyrenean landscape, linking ecosystems, histories, and communities. Yet, human interventions—damming, sediment transport disruptions, and water management—have altered their flow and meaning. These waterways, once symbols of continuity, now also reflect the layered consequences of human impact.

Glaciers: The Great Change

The retreat of glaciers is portrayed through a powerful pairing of Briet’s stark historical photographs with vivid contemporary images. The resulting contrasts reveal not just loss but the interconnected nature of this transformation, impacting rivers, ecosystems, and cultural identity. Rather than reducing glaciers to symbols of despair, the authors use them to provoke reflection on resilience and responsibility. Their comparative methodology offers visual evidence of environmental change, transcending the oversimplified narratives often found in media discussions **.

 

A Visual and Multidisciplinary Dialogue

The pairing of Lucien Briet’s historical photographs with modern images taken from the same vantage points is one of the book’s triumphs. Belmonte’s precision as a photographer and geologist creates a “temporal map,” offering tangible evidence of change while evoking both awe and concern.   

Lise Laporte complements this with a cultural lens that highlights the significance of heritage and memory. Together, their collaboration transforms the book into more than an academic or artistic exercise—it becomes a meditation on time and place. The inclusion of detailed GPS coordinates invites readers to embark on their own expeditions, underscoring the book’s interactive spirit. This interactivity transforms the book into more than a static artifact—it becomes a guide for readers to engage actively with the Pyrenees, to follow Briet’s footsteps and create their own visual and emotional dialogues.

 

A Shared Geography

For me, El Pirineo sin Briet helps reframe the walk along the Transpirenaica–transporting me back but also beyond simple snapshots taken in 2017. The book visualizes the fact that geological change can happen in 7 years or 100, challenging this human geographer’s misinformed notion that all geomorphology is slow and ultimately fixed on a hard-to-count scale of eternal geological time.  Before this book, I didn’t yet know Lucien Briet, nor did I consider how much the Pyrenees had changed in the heavily industrialized 20th century. Reading this book deepened my understanding of the Pyrenees as a living, breathing landscape—alive with memory, shaped by history, and vulnerable to our choices.

The book’s final chapter, El Pirineo del Futuro (The Pyrenees of Tomorrow), leaves me asking:  In what ways do the historical transformations documented in this book guide future conservation efforts?  How are communities in the Pyrenees already adapting to ongoing changes, and how can their voices shape the region’s future?  What can the Pyrenees teach us about resilience, both ecological and cultural, in the face of global challenges?  Are there ways to reinvigorate sustainable practices that have been abandoned over time, such as traditional agriculture and herding, to harmonize human activity with environmental preservation?  How can the tools of art and storytelling, exemplified by this book, help us to cultivate a deeper, more empathetic relationship with changing landscapes?

The book provides no easy answers because that is not its purpose. The authors give us a map and coordinates and remind us that the exploration—and responsibility—is ours to undertake.

 

A Legacy of Imagination, Action, and Reflection

At its core, El Pirineo sin Briet is both a celebration and a challenge. It celebrates the enduring legacy of Lucien Briet, whose vision of the Pyrenees as spaces of awe, wonder, and significance laid the foundation for their conservation. His photographs and writings transformed the Pyrenees from remote wilderness into cherished cultural and natural heritage. Yet the book goes beyond mere celebration, challenging readers to confront the changing landscapes of the Pyrenees and consider their role in shaping the region’s future.

Belmonte and Laporte use Briet’s work as a foundation to explore the dynamic interplay of memory, change, and responsibility that defines these mountains today. Their ability to blend art and science, emotion and intellect, is one of the book’s greatest achievements. By juxtaposing Briet’s historical photographs with modern imagery, they transform abstract discussions of environmental change into something viscerally tangible: glaciers retreating, vegetation shifting, and rivers reshaped by time and human activity. Belmonte’s geological expertise anchors the narrative with scientific rigor, while Laporte’s cultural reflections infuse the story with historical and emotional depth.

Ultimately, El Pirineo sin Briet is more than a book; it is a time capsule, a scientific treatise, and a call to action. It reminds us of the fragility and beauty of the natural world while challenging us to reflect on our roles in shaping its future. Through Lucien Briet’s lens, Belmonte and Laporte rekindle our connection to the Pyrenees and inspire us to protect its enduring legacy.

As Fernando Pessoa’s epigraph reminds us, “What we see is not made of what we see, but of what we are.” El Pirineo sin Briet invites us to reflect on how landscapes—like the Pyrenees—not only reveal their essence but also shape who we are. In an age of climate uncertainty, there is no greater act of hope than imagining—and preserving—the futures we want for generations to come.

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*For more on the Appalachian Trail, listen to EPISODE TWENTY NINE: A Great American Pilgrimage (March 25, 2017) of Geographical Imaginations: Radio Expeditions into the Geographies of Everything and Nothing when we explore the 3500 kilometer walk from Maine to Georgia in the Eastern woods of the United States traversing the ridge-line of the oldest mountains in the world, the Appalachians. 

** For more on media representation in the age of climate change, listen to EPISODE FIFTY EIGHT: Poster Bear (November 23, 2019) of Geographical Imaginations: Radio Expeditions into the Geographies of Everything and Nothing.  This episode is the second part of a two-episode exploration of two polar bears—the one that travels along the ice and the other one that circulates in the media.

VISIONA/HU 2024: Utopian Journeys and the Geography of Imagination

by | Nov 20, 2024 | Culture, Exhibitions, Geo-Storytelling, Spain

 

Throughout history, the concept of utopia has served both as a refuge and a mirror—a place we imagine as better than where we are, yet one that reflects our deepest anxieties, contradictions, and aspirations. The VISIONA/HU (VISIONA Huesca) project, organized by the Diputación Provincial de Huesca in Aragón, Spain, has channeled this universal drive to escape, reinvent, or seek new possibilities. Over a cycle of (until now) four exhibitions, it has guided viewers through explorations of space, identity, and movement, provoking reflection on how landscapes—whether rural, urban, or entirely imagined—reveal the social, political, and cultural forces shaping them.

In 2024, VISIONA/HU presented Utopian Journeys, an exhibition that examined the allure and contradictions of utopia through the works of eight artists. Each artist invites viewers to transcend limitations and reimagine new realities. However, Utopian Journeys is not an isolated exhibition; it is the culmination of a thematic cycle exploring depopulation, displacement, tourism, and now speculative landscapes of possibility. Each edition in this series contributes to an evolving narrative linking art, geography, and community, offering shifting perspectives on movement and place. This year’s exhibition centers on journeys of the imagination, where utopia becomes not a destination but a horizon of possibilities—a continual questioning and reimagining.

The Evolution of VISIONA/HU Huesca: A Four-Part Cycle of Transformation

The VISIONA/HU cycle has explored four core themes, each engaging with a distinct spatial or societal concern. The project situates contemporary art within broader geographical contexts, transforming spaces into lenses through which we can explore deeper questions of meaning and identity. These themes—ranging from the tangible and historical to the speculative and aspirational—interweave geographical theory, cultural critique, and an evolving conversation with the Huesca community. They address complex subjects in geographical and cultural studies, such as migration, landscape transformation, the commodification of space, and the mutable boundaries of utopian vision. Each exhibition within VISIONA/HU has encouraged visitors to confront and interrogate these themes on both personal and collective levels, immersing them in spaces that function as portals to, and critiques of, the futures they imagine.

2018 – Depopulation and Transformation of Territory

The 2018 exhibition, Despoblación y Transformación del Territorio, focused on rural depopulation—a pressing issue in Spain, where migration to urban centers has left entire villages and regions in decline. This edition addressed depopulation not as mere absence but as a dynamic reshaping of both the physical and cultural landscapes of Spain’s rural territories. The resulting landscapes are not simply “empty” but layered with memories, histories, and potential futures of those who left and those who remain. The featured works captured rural decay as a process of transformation, revealing the layers of memory and loss inscribed in the landscape.

Through images of abandoned buildings, empty streets, and overgrown fields, the exhibition questioned the social and economic forces driving depopulation and asked whether rural spaces could hold new forms of meaning and community. In depicting spaces left behind, the exhibition evoked Edward Relph’s theory of “placelessness,” a condition where places lose their meaning or identity through decline or detachment from their original purpose. The works highlighted how landscapes become symbols of forgotten lives, and the spatial arrangement reminded audiences that these “empty” spaces are filled with latent histories, awaiting new stories and uses. This examination of depopulated spaces added a critical, geographical dimension to how we interpret and value rural landscapes, drawing attention to their social, historical, and environmental significance.

2019 – Journeys and Displacements

In 2019, VISIONA/HU turned its attention to Journeys and Displacements, exploring how migration and mobility alter identity and belonging. In this edition, space was understood as a construct produced through relationships and interactions. Migration and displacement transform both the places left behind and the destinations reached, creating “meeting places” where diverse trajectories intersect.

Rather than portraying movement as simply a shift from point A to point B, the exhibition revealed how journeys reshape the cultural and social fabric of both origin and destination. Forced migration, exile, and the emotional geographies of displacement became central themes. The works underscored that spaces are constituted by the movements, memories, and interactions of those who pass through them, challenging fixed notions of place and identity. By curating these complex interpretations of movement, VISIONA/HU invoked Henri Lefebvre’s production of space, emphasizing that the cultural and political significance of a place emerges through social practices and interactions. This emphasis on the multi-dimensional nature of displacement opened up critical questions about belonging, resilience, and the transformative power of journeying.

2021 – Tourism and Its Discontents

In 2021, VISIONA/HU shifted to Tourism and Its Discontents, critiquing the impact of global tourism on local spaces and identities. Tourism, while promoting economic growth, also commodifies culture, transforms local environments, and often alienates residents. This edition highlighted how tourism reshapes places to fit external desires and demands rather than local identities, raising questions about the possibility of preserving integrity in the face of commodification. Can places retain their cultural essence as they become destinations? Can heritage survive the objectifying gaze of tourism?

Through the lens of tourism, the works revealed the environmental and social impacts of being packaged and sold as cultural “experiences.” By examining the commodification of heritage, VISIONA/HU encouraged viewers to rethink their own roles as consumers of “authentic” experiences, exploring the tension between preserving and exploiting place. This theme resonated with sociologist Dean MacCannell’s critique of “staged authenticity,” which argues that tourism often creates superficial representations of places that distort their intrinsic meaning. The exhibition’s nuanced approach invited audiences to engage with tourism as both a deeply personal and collective experience, revealing how the “tourist gaze” transforms spaces, impacting both local identities and visitor expectations.

2024 – Utopian Journeys: Imagination and Transformation

This year, VISIONA/HU completed (maybe?) the cycle with Utopian Journeys, moving from the examination of real spaces to speculative, imagined worlds. Each artist brings a unique perspective, showing that utopia is not a fixed destination but a transformative journey shaped by dreams, ambition, and cultural myth-making.

Each artist in Utopian Journeys contributes a distinct interpretation of the utopian impulse, illustrating how journeys—whether literal, symbolic, or imagined—reshape our understanding of space, identity, and aspiration. These works invite us to reflect on the nature of utopia, showing that the pursuit of “elsewhere” is as much a search for meaning as it is for place. Here is a closer exploration of each artist’s work and how it contributes to the overarching theme of utopian journeys.

Georges Méliès & Segundo de Chomón: Early Cinematic Utopias

Georges Méliès and Segundo de Chomón are among the pioneers of cinematic journeys, using early film technology to transport viewers to imagined worlds. Méliès’ Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902) and Chomón’s Excursión a la Luna (1908) are considered landmarks of speculative journeys in cinema, using whimsical special effects to portray journeys to the moon as surreal and fantastical. These works symbolize the human impulse to explore beyond known limits, aligning the act of discovery with imagination itself.

Their films portray the moon as a fantastical realm, a space where scientific curiosity intersects with dreams and fantasy, and the works’ placement at the exhibition entrance aligns with Michel Foucault’s concept of “heterotopia”—spaces that simultaneously mirror and challenge reality. These works become metaphors for the way society projects its dreams onto distant, unreachable landscapes. By setting the stage for Utopian Journeys with these pieces, the curators frame the notion of exploration as both an escape and an exploration of the mind’s creative powers.

Andrés Pachón: The Mirage of Authenticity

In Dioramas (2012) and Magic Lantern (2016), Andrés Pachón deconstructs the notion of authenticity, critiquing how historical narratives have framed distant cultures through Western perspectives. His Dioramas series manipulates early ethnographic documentaries, revealing how “exotic” landscapes and their inhabitants were often framed to fit colonial or touristic narratives. Similarly, Magic Lantern deconstructs historical slides of the Holy Land, exposing how even sacred spaces have been shaped by external interpretations and cultural biases.

By unveiling the artifice within these visual “authenticities,” Pachón challenges viewers to question how landscapes—real or imagined—are shaped by historical power dynamics. His work aligns with Denis Cosgrove’s theory of the “iconography of landscape,” where landscapes are interpreted through cultural narratives that project particular values onto them. Pachón’s installations encourage a reconsideration of the power relations involved in creating utopian ideals, highlighting how these ideals are not value-neutral but are instead shaped by cultural frameworks that define and often limit our interactions with place.

Greta Alfaro: Decay and Utopian Failure

Greta Alfaro’s Decimocuarta estación (2019) reimagines Spain’s abandoned railway stations as poignant symbols of utopian failure. Her images reveal these spaces as both literal and metaphorical ruins, remnants of industrial optimism that have decayed into isolation and neglect. Drawing inspiration from the Stations of the Cross, Alfaro suggests that utopian journeys are often riddled with suffering and disillusionment. Through her haunting portrayals of abandoned infrastructure, Alfaro’s work evokes the cyclical nature of ambition and collapse, illustrating how utopian ideals are often intertwined with the seeds of their own failure.

Her focus on decayed infrastructure and the remnants of past progress speaks to Tim Cresswell’s concept of “place memory,” where landscapes retain traces of forgotten or unfulfilled ambitions. In the context of Utopian Journeys, Alfaro’s work underscores that even places once associated with connection and progress can become monuments to isolation and neglect, a reminder that every utopian dream carries within it the potential for dystopia.

Rogelio López Cuenca: Mapping Displacement

Rogelio López Cuenca’s No/W/here (1998) critiques the inequalities inherent in global movement through the metaphor of a subway map. His work challenges the assumption that movement is universally accessible, framing migration as a journey that is often defined by restrictions, exclusions, and barriers. By representing migration as a form of displacement rather than seamless movement, López Cuenca reveals the social and political forces that determine who can access utopian ideals and who cannot.

The work of López Cuenca also aligns with David Harvey’s critique of spatial inequality, highlighting how utopian ideals of freedom and mobility remain elusive for marginalized communities. His piece forces viewers to confront the reality that while utopian journeys may inspire visions of new possibilities, they are not universally accessible. Instead, these journeys often reinforce boundaries, creating geographies of privilege and exclusion that complicate the very notion of utopia.

Cristina De Middel: The Mythical Expedition

Cristina De Middel’s Jan Mayen (2015) is a satirical reconstruction of an Arctic expedition, blending fact with fantasy to critique the romanticism and absurdity of the “heroic” journey. Her staged photographs parody the romanticized notion of exploration, highlighting how these journeys are often driven as much by hubris as by discovery. By rendering her expedition as both playful and preposterous, De Middel challenges the idea of utopian exploration as inherently noble, suggesting instead that such journeys often reflect a self-centered desire to conquer or “know” an unknown space.

This piece ties into Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism, as it critiques how “other” places are frequently represented as spaces to be claimed or defined through Western lenses. De Middel’s work becomes a reminder that the pursuit of utopia may at times reflect not just aspiration, but a failure to see the land or the journey for what they truly are. Her approach asks viewers to consider the cultural and ideological constructs that underpin our notions of exploration, suggesting that utopian journeys may sometimes be based more on myth than on reality.

Fernando Prats: The Sublime Landscape of the Antarctic

Fernando Prats’ work, particularly Hacia el polo sur and Gran Sur, exemplifies the “sublime” in geographical aesthetics through its engagement with the Antarctic environment. By using elements like wind, snow, and ice to shape his canvases, Prats positions the natural landscape as an active force in the creation of his art. His work suggests that certain places demand humility rather than conquest, asking viewers to see landscapes not as passive backdrops but as autonomous entities with the power to shape human perception.

Prats’ work speaks to Nigel Thrift’s non-representational theory, which emphasizes the affective and performative aspects of space over purely visual representation. In making the Antarctic landscape itself a co-creator, Prats challenges the colonial gaze that has often viewed remote landscapes as spaces to be subdued. His pieces align with the theme of Utopian Journeys by framing exploration not as an act of dominance but as one of reverence, suggesting that certain places can only be approached through respect and awe.

Joan Fontcuberta: The Cosmonaut as Utopian Explorer

In his Sputnik series, Joan Fontcuberta fabricates the narrative of Ivan Istochnikov, a Soviet cosmonaut who supposedly vanished in space. Through doctored photographs and fabricated documents, Fontcuberta blurs the lines between truth and fiction, presenting space exploration as both a remarkable achievement and a myth. The cosmonaut becomes a figure of utopia—a symbol of human aspiration who ventures beyond known boundaries in search of something greater. By intertwining reality with illusion, Fontcuberta critiques the construction of myths, reminding viewers that many utopian journeys are built on cultural narratives that blur the boundaries between fact and fiction.

Fontcuberta’s work can be seen through Roland Barthes’ mythologies, where certain symbols naturalize cultural ideologies and desires. By fictionalizing space exploration, Fontcuberta underscores the role of myth in utopian journeys, asking viewers to reflect on the stories they tell themselves about progress, possibility, and the unknown. His work prompts viewers to ask whether utopia is a place we can actually reach or a space we imagine as a reflection of our collective ideals.

Discussion

Beyond the individual artworks, this year’s theme is enriched through VISIONA/HU’s efforts to engage the public with Utopian Journeys via interactive elements such as conferences, guided tours, and workshops. These activities broadened the scope of the theme, allowing participants to engage with the exhibition’s ideas on a deeper level. A feature conference titled “El decálogo del viajero verniano” explored Jules Verne’s legacy in modern travel narratives, positioning him as a precursor to the imaginative journeys central to this exhibition.

Guided tours were crafted to invite participants to navigate the exhibition as if embarking on their own journey, mirroring the spirit of exploration and discovery. These tours, led by curators and knowledgeable guides, added layers of interpretation to each piece, revealing how each artist contributes to the larger conversation about utopia. The workshops, aimed at a younger audience, further expand VISIONA/HU’s reach, inviting future generations to engage critically with the concept of utopian journeys and to consider how their own experiences shape their vision of the future.

In the larger context of VISIONA/HU’s four-part cycle, this year’s theme represented a culmination that reflects the tensions between reality and imagination, individuality and collectivity, and personal desire and societal limitation. There is a striking interplay between this year’s artists and their chosen mediums. Fontcuberta’s fictional cosmonaut and Méliès’ fantastical film works reveal that journeys are often rooted in narrative as much as geography, while Alfaro’s decayed stations and Prats’ frozen canvases remind us of the fragility of utopian visions in the face of material reality. By juxtaposing these works, VISIONA/HU offers a multi-layered critique of the utopian impulse, asking viewers to consider what it means to imagine, pursue, and ultimately confront the limits of their own dreams.

At the same time, VISIONA/HU does not shy away from critiquing the commercial and ideological constructs tied to utopian ideals. Through installations like Fontcuberta’s Sputnik series and De Middel’s Jan Mayen, the exhibition reminds viewers of the ironies embedded in our aspirations for a better world. These works encourage a more reflective engagement, urging visitors to consider how the very idea of utopia may be shaped by the narratives that society chooses to highlight or obscure.

Conclusion

Utopian Journeys is a fitting culmination (maybe?) to VISIONA/HU’s thematic cycle on geography, identity, and movement. By bringing together diverse perspectives on the utopian impulse, the exhibition transforms the idea of a journey from mere exploration to an act of introspection, critique, and confrontation with societal limits. VISIONA/HU Huesca 2024 invites us to reconsider utopia not as a single destination but as a spectrum of possibilities, each dependent on cultural context and individual perspective.

As VISIONA/HU closes this four-year chapter, it leaves us with a series of questions: Where will the project take us next? Will future editions dive deeper into the intersections of reality and imagination, challenging us to confront the limitations of our collective aspirations? Or will VISIONA/HU turn its gaze toward grounded issues, re-examining depopulation, displacement, and environmental change through new lenses? How might VISIONA/HU address the pressing challenges of our time—climate change, migration, the digitization of memory, and the blurring lines between physical and virtual worlds?

As audiences departed from Utopian Journeys, perhaps they carried these questions with them. VISIONA/HU showed that its strength lies in its ability to adapt, rethink the boundaries of art, geography, and community engagement. As it charts a new course, VISIONA/HU will continue to be a space of exploration, pushing viewers to confront the shifting geographies of their own hopes and fears. In the end, the journey may not be about reaching a utopian destination but about staying curious, remaining open to new paths, and daring to imagine possibilities that lie beyond the known.