IN-PERSON Barcelona. Section A

Abstract

The contribution analyses how the expansion of urban areas has affected the surrounding cultivated lands, specifically those closest to the city, historically used for growing fresh vegetables. Taking the city of Vic as a case study, the research focuses on qualitative methods and an anthropological approach to understand the persistence of such spaces in today’s collective memory. As such, a systemic approach is taken to understand the relationship between production spaces and the weekly farmer’s market and the understanding of the historical functioning of the city as a system. Specifically, focus is given to water infrastructure and the persistence, or disappearance, of fertile soil for agriculture as remnants of a system built over years and generations, today only seen in fragments through the fading memory of aging farmers and market vendors. It reflects on the importance of taking knowledge from the past into account when addressing future transformations, specifically in terms of sustainability and food sovereignty, at a time when the riverside renaturalization project is being promoted by the municipality. This moment offers the mobilization of multiple discourses on the relationship of the city with its naturalized environment and its surrounding areas. Through a visual analysis of the city’s cartography, photography and paintings, the overlapping of narratives shows how the undocumented and oral heritage offers a parallel history of those that have traditionally been in a subordinate position and have enjoyed less visibility and recognition.