Phantom Brickworks: Antimetaphors of the Property Crisis in Spain
Issue: Vol 7 No. 1 (2020)
Journal: Journal of Contemporary Archaeology
Subject Areas: Archaeology
DOI: 10.1558/jca.36289
Abstract:
Bailén is a small town in southern Spain where, during the housing bubble in the early 2000s, a third of the country's domestic housing-brick supply was produced. After the 2008 financial crash, two of the town's three brickworks shut down - leaving dozens of abandoned factories behind. By walking through these ghostly ruins and photographing their strangely beautiful aesthetics, the author reflects on the rise and fall of a development model based on construction. It is stated that, whilst the sole notion of ‘crisis' is abstract and cannot be visualised, phantom brickworks function as antimetaphors because, instead of representing the crisis, they are the crisis. The music is available on the NTS YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08ctUR90WrM
Author: Pablo Arboleda
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