Catalonia will make a global appeal to Venice to address the water crisis.

L'Hospitalet de Llobregat / BarcelonaIn the city of Barcelona, there are more than 2,000 fountains, both ornamental and drinking water. Many of the ornamental fountains do not operate with water suitable for consumption, but even so, during times of drought, the City Council closed them to raise awareness of the seriousness of the situation. Now, the curators of the Catalan pavilion at the upcoming Venice Architecture Biennale, architects Mireia Luzárraga and Alejandro Muiño (Takk) and Eva Franch, propose, as part of their project, Water parliaments, create a "data source," that is, "an urban instrument that helps us understand when we are in a water crisis situation," as Eva Franch explains.

"We propose a new typology so that we understand when we are in a crisis situation, and that it is also a space where you can bring your own drinking water and have it analyzed, so that citizens have agency over the quality of the drinking water that reaches their homes," she explains. The curators are aware that water control agencies have this information, but what they want is to "empower citizens and also produce a space of transparency and awareness," says Franch.

The next Venice Architecture Biennale will be held from May 10 to November 23, under the direction of architect Carlo Ratti, and with the motto Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. It will be the seventh edition in which Catalonia will participate, within the collateral event, always with the support of the Institut Ramon Llull, which this year is allocating around 600,000 euros. "In a context of enormous global irrationality, Carlo Ratti asks us to talk about intelligence, and we take up the challenge with Water parliaments", says the director of the Institut Ramon Llull, Pere Almeda. "Water is an essential element in any ecosystem, and in a Mediterranean country like ours it is one of the key elements in the management of our collective life, and in the management of climate emergencies. If we do not apply all our intelligence to water management, we will not get ahead," says Almeda.

To develop the pavilion materials, Luzárraga, Muiño and Franch investigated in situ in the lands of Lleida, Terres de l'Ebre, the Girona regions, Barcelona, ​​​​the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands through "futures workshops" for which they convened agents from the different areas, scientists, activists, politicians, artists and architects to have a "transversal vision of the territory, of the problems of the problems." This methodology allowed them to identify ways in which, through architecture, they could contribute to creating "hopeful scenarios, in some cases critical, in some cases even fictional," with the aim of "rethinking our relationship with water," reports Franch, of "contributing to facing this water crisis with consequences that go far beyond."

An immersive space on the challenges of water management

In Venice they will deploy their search in a polymorphic space made with stretched fabric that will transform the austere naval cantieri, the nautical warehouses where the Catalan delegation sets up shop every year, in an immersive and colorful space, thanks to projections of water-related images. "What sometimes happens in Venice is that many pavilions are very intellectual, and we wanted to escape this elitist vision and try to open the experience to the general public, generating a space that has a corporeal character, visually attractive, and also in terms of humidity and temperature," says Muiño.

Each of the territories will be represented by an installation. In addition to the data source, the installation dedicated to the Valencian Community after the ravages of DANA will be dedicated to doors, hinges, and evacuation routes. And the sedimentation of the Ebro Delta will be represented by a "sediment room" with information on how to transfer silt from the Ribarroja and Mequinenza reservoirs and transfer it to the river so that it can continue contributing it to the Ebro Delta. "There are more than 500 species in the Ebro Delta that are in danger of extinction if we don't understand that it is one of the great ecological and ecosocial treasures we have in the territory and that nothing is being done to truly preserve them," warns Franch.

In the Balearic Islands, the commissioners are addressing the issue of the crises of the 87 existing aquifers, five of which will be dedicated commemorative plaques to raise awareness of where their water comes from. "In the Balearic Islands, more than 70% of drinking water comes from aquifers, and there is really a very large problem of water stress. That's why the desalination plants have begun operating," says Franch.

Regarding the lands of Lleida, the curators use the "designation of destination" as a starting point to provoke reflection on whether "our habits as consumers can adapt to the water stress we are experiencing," as Muñio says, which he would summarize in the form of flags or banners. "We realized that it wasn't about questioning the irrigation systems used," he adds, "whether flood irrigation or drip irrigation, but rather, as architects, where we could intervene more astutely was by trying to make transparent the fact that a large portion of the crops produced in this area are exported outside of Catalonia." So, in this case, problems such as the purchase of land and water charges by large investors like Blackstone and the ecological impact of fruit exports arise. "The pear from Lleida often reaches New Zealand or Tokyo, but with these exports, this water that comes from here travels great distances to produce a business that doesn't remain in a local structure," says Franch. "It's about how we make the fields visible, and how we make the fields visible to what's happening."

Water parliaments It is also included in the International Union of Architects congress, to be held in Barcelona in 2026. To broaden the scope of their research, the curators are launching an open call this Wednesday for individuals, collectives, and organizations working on water issues from an eco-social perspective to submit their construction projects.