Xavier Ribas - Photographer - Barcelona Pictures
‘Xavier Ribas dissects the phenomenon of entertainment, of leisure, of what people do in their ‘free’ time, showing the extent to which such activities take place in the city’s residual spaces. Quite spontaneously, people preserve, manage and recycle these spaces, effectively keeping them out of the efficient, productive order of the city: places for walking, sunbathing, picknicking, sport and exercise…It seems paradoxical that these spaces –not yet codified, as yet without regulation- are where people still have a chance to take the initiative. As Ribas concludes: ‘Freedom can only flourish in a residual space that might, as a result, have a desolate appearance’. Although his documentary approach is guided primarily by an interest in anthropology and urbanism that leads to narrative images laden with little anecdotes, the photography –at once incisive and indulgent- sets out to imbue that desolation with a touch of Mediterranean irony’.
