Popular iconography

Personal project

2023-en curs

This proposal follows on from a series of iconological studies to focus on the iconography of restaurant walls. The aim of this approach is, on the one hand, to preserve the memory of these highly relevant and socially significant images and, on the other, to analyse their social life, placing special emphasis on their content, topography, display and circulation. Through this imagery, the project aims to uncover the psychological assumptions that reveal the basic attitude of a context, a period, a community, an ideology, or an aesthetic. In short, it will record and interpret a constellation of images within the framework of a set of historical and symbolic relationships.

Project carried out with Glòria Domènech.

  • Although the main theme of the iconography at Bareto Olímpic (Ciutat Vella) is the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, it is also mixed with light-hearted and varied decoration.

  • The Mimi Tapas restaurant in Ciutat Vella (Barcelona) combines images of the city's clichés with food photography.

  • The Leo bar in La Barceloneta is a tribute, almost in the form of religious worship, to the rumba singer Bambino, although images of him alternate with those of the relatives of the bar's owner, Leo.

  • The Afecte bakery has chosen scenes from science fiction films that are part of the collective imagination to decorate the walls of its establishment located in Barcelona's Eixample district.

  • The longing for the natural world that developed from the industrial revolution and the ecological shift, also reflected on the walls, allows us to immerse ourselves in a form of ‘natural’ paradise, in this case at the Asador de Lugo restaurant in the Sants neighbourhood of Barcelona.

  • The Electricitat bar displays a series of photographs of old restaurants in the traditional fishing district of La Barceloneta on its walls.

  • The Bartolí wine cellar, located in the Sants neighbourhood, decorates part of its premises with old photos of Barcelona.

  • A series of photographs of famous diners who have eaten at the Barcelona restaurant Can Culleretes, confirming the popularity and tradition of this establishment founded in 1879.

  • Photograph of one of the corners of the Can Serra restaurant in the village of Montseny.

  • Partial view of the dining room at El Dragón Rojo bar, located in the Sant Miquel neighbourhood of Granollers, which despite being one of the most deprived areas of the city contains elements of refined Baroque style.

  • Group photographs of different members of the Futbol Club Barcelona first team, hung on the wall of one of the corridors of the Fonda Montseny restaurant (Montseny, Barcelona).

  • Abstract pictorial diptych decorating a wall in the large dining room of the Gran Olla restaurant at the Granollers Hotel (Barcelona).

  • Photograph of actor Al Pacino, dressed as Tony Montana in the film Scarface, hanging from a column in the Il Italiano pizzeria in Granollers.

  • One of the photographs with a cinematic theme, in this case Italian, hanging on the walls of the restaurant Il sapore italiano, in the city of Granollers (Barcelona).

  • Portrait of Magí Soler, one of the founders of La Cova Fumada in 1944 and son of Palmira, the inventor of the tapa ‘bomba’, in the traditional fishing district of La Barceloneta.

  • The iconic photograph Lunch atop a Skyscraper decorating the restaurant La Matinada (Puigcerdà).

  • Photographs of American cinema icons decorate the bar counter at El Moll del Rebaix tapas bar in the La Barceloneta neighbourhood.

  • Large-format photograph at the Greek restaurant Pita Gyros, showcasing the multicultural cuisine of the city of Barcelona.

  • Portrait of Rosalía, mother of the current owner of the Paco Alcalde bar, decorating one of the walls of the popular restaurant in La Barceloneta.

  • Photographic diptych with a baking theme decorating the Todo Bueno bakery, located in the centre of Granollers (Barcelona).

  • View of part of the exhibition at the Rocaumbert F.A. bar, where the images took the form of functional placemats.