More than places: six stories, six spaces

Where do they go? What do they learn? What do they gain from it? Each person's favorite place – to get lost in, spend time in, work in, or even live in – is explained by intimate and profound reasons. Experiences that, possibly, take root in childhood; others are born from impressions awakened by certain landscapes, silences, mysteries, or subtleties that reveal the reason for an attraction. A person's connection with a space they feel is their own activates an inner pulse. An office where ideas turn into realities, a sea that evokes pirate stories, rocks bathed in colored water, depths and sea distances that revitalize, a street steeped in history, and that first place that sparked a vocation that became much more than a profession: these are six life stories shared by well-known personalities from the country, revealing the extent to which the place they return to is important to them, the lessons they draw from it when they are there, and what they take with them simply for being there.Lluís Llach, singer-songwriter

“I am from here and I have it very clear”

“This is where I learned to swim with my mother”, recalls the singer-songwriter Lluís Llach. With towels in a basket, that woman ahead of her time – she had studied to be a teacher during the Republic and, at a time when almost no one had a car, she even knew how to drive – often accompanied her son to the beach of l’Estartit, with the Medes Islands in the background. A corner of the Empordà coast with a sea full of pirate stories that fueled the outings of that child and where he would continue to go, also, as an adolescent. His friends beat him at swimming, but he always surpassed them underwater. “I knew how to relax submerged, which is very important”, he assures. With his father, on the other hand, he didn't come as much. “He was a doctor and couldn't afford to go to the beach”, comments Llach as he admires this “curious” place that appears before his eyes as a “living horizon” of geometries and contrasts.

It could be a perfectly monotonous space, like the Atlantic Ocean in Senegal –where Llach has the Foundation that bears his name–, with large expanses of water, without ridges or massifs, but it is the opposite: “One of the beautiful things about the Costa Brava is the way the land seems to embrace pieces of sea and forms what we call coves. On this beach, at sunset, especially in autumn, the sun positions itself in a way that casts a kind of red spotlight. The Medes have an extraordinary theatrical illumination every afternoon: very clean reds, the sea takes on a strange color... We call it the hour of the beautiful ones. Furthermore, we see the sun rise behind the Medes –for a period of days–, which is a spectacle,” describes the singer-songwriter. It could also be a common landscape, but, on the contrary, it captivates: “The great advantage of Empordà is that the horizon is, almost, always clear: you see that lenticular (lenticular cloud) which they draw on purpose and wouldn't have done it so well. In starling season it's wonderful because they make figures in the sky”, he adds. It is the universe of the Medes, which, in fact, they jokingly called “the goals”. “Because of the pitagram that came out of the sea: the big goal and the small goal”, recalls Llach, knowledgeable about the art of sailing –for fifteen years he had a boat–: “The sea is a strange God, it becomes the most terrifying demon when you least expect it”; and also about fishing: “Before, you made your own rod, you went looking for lead from some pipe and used a potato as bait. In the Molí region and in the Ter, the carp were hungry...”, he states.

This was a time when L'Estartit had “four fishermen's houses” and “a inn called Montserrat”. The beach changed with the arrival of tourists – more specifically, female tourists–. Then, Llach composed the song La Madame, conceived in this corner of the coast. “The Swedish women, the French women... The local boys were looking for little plans with them due to the scarcity of the market,” jokes Llach, born in Verges, who admits to having witnessed the urban development of the Costa Brava with a “ great aesthetic pain” and believes that “the only joy” of the irruption of tourism is thinking that “it has helped many people in Empordà to live”. “I did many recitals to save beaches and coves. We live in a society where what matters is production and profits – they call this progress – and over the years you see devastated countries,” he corroborates.

“The gargoyle with a lamb-like appearance always conveys something to me”Pilarín Bayés, illustrator

“The gargoyle with a lamb-like appearance always conveys something to me”

Despite the mystery it emanates, the illustrator Pilarín Bayés is more driven by curiosity. Even as a child, this “true corner” attracted her. “I am naturally nosy,” she explains. It is a dead end, specifically l’Albergueria street, located in the historic center of Vic. It barely gets any sun and the buildings have been expanded “wherever they could in a more organic than architectural way”. Among them, the alberguería stands out, built in the 11th century as a hospital, a place of accommodation to host pilgrims and travelers without resources, and, in addition, a clerical residence, and which gives its name to the street. The passage, which preserves different elements and walls from the 11th century –such as a stone shield–, hides, at the end, an architectural treasure: a gargoyle sculpted as a lamb. “I have the idea of discovery. Of seeing a lamb hanging there, which attracted me. I love it!”, she exclaims. Also a rose window, which belongs to the chapel of the Holy Spirit of the Vic cathedral. Whoever enters this medieval alley heads towards –although direct access is not possible because the entrance is currently closed– the Romanesque cloister, of which it was an exit. According to some experts, some large stone ashlar blocks on a wall at the end of the alley could belong to the Roman wall of Vic.

Bayés, who as a child lived in a house in the Cathedral square, had two ways to get to school. To be able to see the gargoyle and the rose window –which she has drawn on so many occasions–, she always asked to pass by here, often accompanied by the bells in the background. “Since they repeated them twice, you still had time for the second one,” she says. Her sports center was the cathedral's atrium. “We used to play hockey and skate there. There were huge holes, but we didn't notice them,” she recalls. One of her favorite pastimes was going to the attic of her house with one of her siblings. “There were chicken coops, water tanks, all sorts of things... And we made great discoveries: old newspapers and magazines, old shoes... Every time we entered the attic it was an expedition,” she assures. With one of her siblings – she is the fourth of five, and currently there are only three of them – they had also gone on excursions to the roof. “The neighbors, alarmed, would come to warn us: you have the children on the roof! While we were discovering new worlds...”. Although her name is Pilar, her mother called her Nin. “And my cousins, to make me angry, used to call me Lenin. One summer when my sisters and I spent the summer in Salou, they called me Piluca and, upon returning to Vic, a lady who worked at our house heard it and replied: «If you call her Piluca, you'll have to deal with me, poor creature!»”. “If someone calls me Pilar on the street, I never turn around.” This diminutive form is so hers that she doesn't see it as a diminutive.

She is a lover of any old neighborhood, but of hers, she admits, she is “particularly in love” because it is where she was born and raised. The life that existed a few years ago in this alley is very different from the current one. “The alberguería was a place where pilgrims could be welcomed,” she comments. During the weekends, now, the atmosphere comes, as she explains, from the scouts. “The windows overlook the wider street and there is fantastic hustle and bustle.” Very close to here, are located the Romanesque bridge and the tanneries, a set of old industrial buildings where for centuries the activity of the tannery took place. The artist, who currently lives in another part of the city, when she has to go downtown with some of her daughters, always passes by this alley when she can, presided over by the prominent building of the alberguería, declared a local cultural heritage asset and, currently, headquarters of the cultural dissemination center of the bishopric of Vic. It continues to attract her. “Apart from giving a formidable medieval image,” there is another reason: “The lamb-like gargoyle always conveys something to me.” It is a “pretty” spot. “An alley full of history, huh?”

Nani Marquina, industrial designer

“Nature, with its imperfections, has a unique beauty”

“It’s where I started... For me, it has been a reunion”From this bench, facing the sea of Tamariu, in the municipality of Palafrugell, where she likes to sit, she captures an “almost perfect” landscape. “We try to express this imperfect or irregular beauty when we design, because it is what is closest to nature”. And she highlights: “Nature, with its imperfections, has a unique beauty: the same rock, for example, has a scratch or a piece is missing from one side, the sand is not always the same... That has value. It is aesthetic”. And she dives in: “I like to distill why I like this flower, this tree, the shape it has, the color, and if a wrinkle has formed”. Colors are the basis of her creativity. “How you mix them... And seeing the sea helps me. Not only because it is blue, green, or gray, but also because sometimes it has yellows and reds. The sea has all the colors”, she states.

Contemplating this natural world, with its implicit transformations, helps her connect with her own existence. “Life is a continuous change and a continuous acceptance. Things, in the end, are as they are and we have to accept it”, she explains. From her house, in Esclanyà, she also glimpses this sea “that holds everything like a mirror” and, contemplating it, here or there, helps her live the differences between people with a more understanding attitude. She says this after “many years of persisting to try to achieve challenges”. In the beginning, in the company, founded in 1987, there were only five workers, and now there are almost fifty. “The brand carries my name and I still identify a lot with it”.

The first time she went to Tamariu, she was about ten years old. She arrived with her parents, Rafel Marquina and Maria Mia Testor. “I remember this beach being very different from how it is now, practically just with a small hotel by the sea. We ate and slept in the Els Bungalows apartments.” Some fishermen took them out for a boat trip, and as a result of this experience, Nani Marquina, winner of the National Design Award from the Generalitat, believes this was the first place she fell in love with the sea. Afterwards, they visited Calafell, Palamós, Tossa de Mar, Mallorca, and Ibiza. “I get hooked,” she assures. It's a ritual: going to the bank or going out sailing with her boat. “When you work, your mind doesn't stop, and coming here is like taking a bubble bath. You sit down and say: what peace! You get into a rhythm that is what we all need, that of being with ourselves. That of stopping, observing, and connecting. We lead an altered life with a lot of activity, and it's not about stopping only when you go to sleep.” The waves, however, keep coming, and this constant rhythm evokes, precisely, the internal movement of one's own body: breathing, the heartbeat, and the flow of ideas. That is to say, everything that never stops –and never will–, like her creative capacity.

Jordi Basté, journalist, director, and presenter of 'El Món a RAC1'

“It’s where I started... For me, it has been a reunion”

“Many people must have taken you to bucolic places... I bring you here”, states the journalist, director, and presenter of El món a RAC1, Jordi Basté. He could have chosen some corner of Torredembarra, Port de la Selva, Calonge, or Llafranc; special places – and with which he feels a connection –, but none of them has the symbolic value of this apartment at Via Augusta, number 17, in Barcelona. The first time he entered was in September 1975. He was only ten years old: the switchboard operator was called Pepi, there were Hispano Olivetti typewriters and Revox recorders. When Basté finished the work, on Saturday mornings he used to go to get sandwiches and drinks for whoever asked for them from the program and the newsroom, in the galleries of the Arcàdia passage.

It was the studios of Ràdio Joventut, a station that, at that time, gathered some very young big names in radio waves such as Josep Maria Bachs, Alfons Arús, Antoni Bassas, or Basté himself, who collaborated in the children's program, called Peques Unic“Since I can’t live in the water, I try to stay close to it”A while later, the first paid job he did at Ràdio Joventut was the broadcast of the greyhound racing at the Meridiana dog track, which was usually held on Sundays. Later, others came, such as a basketball game between Bosco de La Coruña and Hospitalet. And then he didn't stop. With a recorder, he went to the Palau Blaugrana to interview the women's basketball team of Barça, specifically, Maria Planes, the coach at the time, and three players: Rosa Castillo, Anna Junyé, and Roser Llop.

”. Currently, although she announced her retirement in 2023, it also emerges for her to do so. “I always end up doing some somersault. Andrea Fuentes and Gemma Mengual came to my house in Menorca for a few days and we went to swim at a beach. Obviously, we started doing. At the Bastés' home, the radio was not only listened to at all hours but also desired. The father (and the family) always ate with the transistor on the table. Specifically, he listened to a sports program on Ràdio Joventut called Antorcha. Avance de los deportes. The mother had a transistor in the kitchen, from where she also listened to Ràdio Joventut or Luis del Olmo, Elena Francis... That her son worked there was a “great pride” because it was a different station. “Ràdio Joventut had a spirit very similar to what RAC1 is now. It was the first to broadcast a Barça football match with joking”, highlights the journalist.

This place of memories of an iconic radio station has, for a year now, been the office of Basté's production company. “We had a small production company, Món Media, and they made us the proposal to absorb the company Never Say Never (NSN), owned by former footballer Andrés Iniesta. We reached an agreement to create NSNMedia. NSN was on Rambla de Catalunya and right on the day we went to sign, they informed us that they were changing locations to go to Via Augusta. Where on Via Augusta? Number 17”. And, indeed, also on the first floor. “I couldn't believe it... I mean, life, because Barcelona is huge”, she assures. The day she entered, after so many years, she had the answer to a recurring question that had been bothering her: “What will be up here?”, she used to say to herself every time she passed by. “It's where I started... For me, it has been a reunion”.

“No matter how beautiful the workplace is, the work doesn't get done by itself”

Ona Carbonell, former Olympic artistic swimming medalist

“As I cannot live in water, I try to stay close”

Listening to the waves, getting your feet wet, having a snack on the sand, watching the fish... Artistic swimmer Ona Carbonell likes being in the sea as much as out of it: the Maresme sea and Menorca's sea. This idyll has allowed her to navigate the waters both in good times, to enjoy what they bring her, and in some more complicated professional situations for which she has needed shelter to recover. If she weren't human, "she would have had to be a mermaid," she asserts, because her world is water, "if possible, salty."

It is in weightlessness that this artistic swimmer –with 23 medals won in world championships– feels best. "It's my state; my element. I love it. I can spend more hours in weightlessness than standing, where I feel more uncomfortable," she describes. In the pool, during training, she could be in it, along with her teammates, for up to six hours without touching the edges. Based on some mathematical calculations, she has concluded that, with training and competitions, it is as if she had spent seven consecutive years of her life in weightlessness. "Really, water is my element," she admits.

Undeniable. She knew it from a young age. She discovered it in the sea of Menorca. At the house located just a few meters from the sea that her parents have in a small cove, Carbonell would only appear to grab a snack and return to the water. "We would prepare a basket with food and go into the middle of the sea to have a snack on a long windsurfing board with friends," she recalls. In those waters, she spontaneously began to do synchronized swimming. "I loved ballet. I did rhythmic gymnastics. I liked music... That's how I discovered "}synchro." Currently, despite announcing her retirement in 2023, it still emerges in her. "I always end up doing some pirouette. Andrea Fuentes and Gemma Mengual came to my house in Menorca for a few days and we went to swim at a beach. Obviously, we started doing "}synchro. The large boats that were there started to applaud. They invited us to eat sobrasada... People were amazed." In saltwater, it's very different from a pool. "You float more, but there are waves and currents, and it's harder to have perfect precision –she corroborates–. I wish we could compete in the sea, because it's idyllic. You see the fish upside down while you're doing pirouettes!" she exclaims.

She has never been afraid. “As a child, I used to swim about two kilometers out to sea...” Her parents always remind her that they were on a friend's sailboat and, while Carbonell was swimming, a squall came. Everyone got very nervous, but she picked up one of her friends on her back, who was also in the water, and carried her to the boat. “I really blended in with the sea and had no fear.” Now she admits she has more than before, perhaps because “she is a mother” and that makes her anticipate dangers more. Even so, the sea continued to inspire her. She says she moves at another pace and remembers that time when, after major competitions, she needed her “dose” of Menorca. “It gave me that energy to inspire me for the next season.” At seventeen, it was a balm. “After four years of giving my all, they told me I wouldn't be going to the Beijing Olympics,” she says. From a television in a fisherman's hut, she watched with her family the silver Olympic medal they won. “I wanted to see my teammates, whom I admire and love, but I also wanted to be there with the team. I didn't know if I could watch it. I cried with sadness and, at the same time, with emotion for them. In the toughest moments, the sea has welcomed me.”

A month and a half is the longest she has gone without seeing it. It was during a backpacking trip through Nepal, India, and Sri Lanka, which she took with her husband. To keep it close, she has found a way: “Since I can't live in the water, I try to stay close,” says Carbonell, who, with her husband and three children, lives in Maresme, near the beach; and they also have a house in Menorca, facing the sea. “The sea of Galicia seems incredible to me. Also that of Asturias. But there are places with very big waves or currents. In Australia or Reunion Island, a shark could eat you... We are fortunate to be able to enjoy it.” Whenever she goes, she takes her nose clips or goggles with her. And when she gets home, she doesn't mind getting into bed with a salty taste. “Many people dislike going to sleep salty; I don't. I've spent too many hours of my life in chlorine,” she jokes. It's the magic of the sea. “The sea has it all.” She says this, whose name is, precisely, Ona.

Albert Serra, filmmaker

“No matter how beautiful the workplace is, the work doesn’t get done by itself”

Work and leisure form a whole. There is no distinction between work life and "normal" life. For film director Albert Serra, "there is no separate world." Proof of this is that 99% of the people he relates to have something to do with his world, that is, work. One of the spaces that concentrates this essence is one of his offices, the one in Banyoles. "It's where I work, which is what I'm interested in doing, even on weekends."

With an industrial aesthetic, this space, with furniture from the seventies, which gives it an "antiquated" effect –as he describes–, and other elements, such as a panel on the wall with Christmas cards (and obituaries of acquaintances), a caricature, old photos, and some computers on the table, accompanies his creative process. Despite this, "no matter how nice the workplace is, the work doesn't do itself. What matters is what goes through your mind," he states.

He has had this office in the El Puntal building of the Lluís Coromina Foundation for about eighteen years. In addition to him, it is also the headquarters of other entities and associations. From here, he highlights a "relative isolation" and also a "relative proximity" to things that interest him or lead him towards a world that can "inspire" him. When choosing the themes for his films, however, he does not choose those that attract him. "Many are random and don't interest me at all. Talking about bullfighting is not the dream of my life –referring to Tardes de Soledad–; or I have absolutely no interest in talking about French Polynesia –in this case, Pacifiction–". So? There is no explanation. Different topics may come to mind, and in the end, one prevails. Sometimes, he asks people around him what they feel like doing most. "It's not even me…"

In his films and documentaries, he seeks an “important unpublished component” and that they “contribute new things that what came before does not have”. He shies away from reproducing originalities: “If copying others is already pathetic, copying yourself is twice as pathetic”. Regarding his works, he reiterates that he “doesn't care” what people think or say. “I wasn't born into this world to listen to others' opinions.” He only shows his films – in the final editing stages – to specific people to gauge their opinion and, above all, to ask them precise questions. “Once it's finished, I'm not interested in people's opinions. It won't serve to change anything. I never read any reviews. What would be the point? It still confuses you...”

In this office, he has edited fragments such as a small part of La mort de Lluís XIV, a part of Liberté, and the entirety of Tardes de soledad, the latter awarded this year with the Goya Prize for best documentary and also with the Gaudí Prizes for best documentary and best editing. “Accolades help to move new projects forward and bring prestige, but they are relative: there are many you don't deserve and others that are given to you and the next year to an idiot. What credibility does that have?”, he comments. Other favorite spaces are his office in Barcelona (also from the same Fundació) or his home – without internet or television and with 4G that doesn't work very well –. “For the most creative things, the internet is useless. It's a distraction.” To write screenplays or other proposals that require prolonged concentration, he leaves. “I go far away: to Europe. Unpleasant places, where there are no distractions. Cheap neighborhoods where you can't go to a nice bar or a bookstore. Nowhere at all. Not suburbs, but almost.”