PARADISES

Having a home means much more than having a roof over one’s head. It means having a space of one’s own, a place to find shelter, to rest, to live together, to raise a family or, quite simply, to close a door and preserve one’s privacy.

Article 47 of the Spanish Constitution recognises the right of all citizens to enjoy decent and adequate housing. Yet the distance between that written right and reality is growing ever wider.

Housing prices, rents and speculation have turned a basic necessity into something that, for many people, is difficult, if not impossible, to attain. Even in the most prosperous societies, having a home — or simply a room — can become a privilege.

These four works arise from this contradiction. Colourful houses appear isolated in seemingly perfect landscapes. We do not know who lives in them, or even whether they are inhabited. They are desirable and strange at the same time: small paradises built around something as fundamental as having a space of one’s own.

Perhaps we have reached an absurd situation: what should be a right is beginning to resemble a dream.

Perhaps paradise is not another world.
Perhaps it is simply having a home in this one.

Jordi Urbón