"When we're in a group, we're more sincere and much freer than on social media."

Barcelona"It distresses me greatly to lose friends. I enjoy deep conversations with my mother. I worry about not achieving what everyone expects of me. I need a hug. I need to be closer to my family. You grow old when you feel nostalgic. You grow old when you look at supermarket prices." These are just some of the reflections that can be heard in a sound installation at the exhibition. We are seventeen years old, a group portrait, which can be seen until May 17 at the CCCB. Its unique feature is that those who speak are 17-year-olds, and what they reveal is very intimate: their thoughts, their concerns, and their worries, free from the pressure of social media or the prejudices of the adult gaze.

Visitors to the exhibition can listen to them, see them through the eyes of their peers who have photographed them up close, observe how they move, how they dance (and dance with them), and even enter their rooms or go to the places they like to escape to. However, they will not be able to learn about their ideology. "It's not a project designed to separate or divide us. We analyze feelings and concepts, and we wanted to leave political labels aside," says Axel Vicente, from the Institut Bellvitge, who participated in the project. Even so, Vicente argues that culture is a powerful tool for combating ignorance: "It's very important to study politics, economics, how things work. There are many people who have no idea."

"I started working on this project in 2024. Everyone experiences turning 17 differently, but thanks to this experience, we've been able to connect with our classmates. To get to know each other. With social media, we show a more superficial side, what we want to project in order to fit in," says Paula Quimbayo from the Doctor Puigvert Institute. "When I picked up the camera, I forgot my phone," Quimbayo adds.

Johan van der Keuken, the inspiration

The exhibition is curated by the cultural association A Bao A Qu (Núria Aidelman, Laia Colell, Ana Fabra, Agnès Sebastià), promoters of the educational project Film in Progressand researcher and curator Érika Goyarrola. More than three hundred young people from Catalonia, Lithuania, and Romania participated, accompanied by photographers, visual artists, filmmakers, and playwrights. The project is inspired by the book We are 17 years old. by the Dutch photographer and filmmaker Johan van der Keuken (1938–2001). In fact, the thirty photographs that the filmmaker took in 1955, when he was just 17 years old, can be seen for the first time in Barcelona. The black and white portraits show young Dutch people directly and intimately, without artificial staging. It is a very personal and introspective look that, despite the distance of more than 50 years, connects with portraits of young people today.

At the time, Johan van der Keuken took a very revolutionary action, and his entire subsequent career revolved around cinema as a form of thought. The fact that a 17-year-old published a book of photographs of young people who, apparently, weren't doing anything—not laughing, jumping, building buildings, or winning races—outraged his contemporaries. From then on, the Dutch filmmaker used his camera to calmly observe the world and share his perspective. During March and April, the Filmoteca, coinciding with the exhibition, will screen more than thirty of Van der Keuken's films.

"It's more important than ever to have a critical eye," says Judit Carrera, director of the CCCB. "We wanted to give young people a voice, a leading role, and a platform, and demonstrate that they have a committed perspective," she adds. The exhibition also aims to avoid stereotypes. "Young people aged 14 to 24 are the main consumers of culture. Museums are a space to be conquered, and they should not only be consumers but also producers, because they are not only the artists of tomorrow but also those of today," argues Susana Arias, head of outreach at the CCCB.

"It's not an idealized vision, nor does it portray an American high school," says Vicente. "They say 17 is an age of rebellion and that afterward we become useful members of society. We certainly evolve, but perhaps not in the way that's expected. We don't like being pigeonholed," he adds. "We're in a stage of experimenting with what we want to be, what we like, but does anyone ever really know for sure?" Quimbayo asks. "This project has helped me get to know myself better. Deep down, I can't stop being myself, and I've ended up loving myself because no one will live my life for me." Working in a group, looking at each other so closely, has been a very positive experience, according to the young people in the exhibition. "At any age, nobody wants to be alone, but for us, the group is very important. In a group, we're more sincere and free than on social media," says Vicente.