Ciutat Meridiana

A film by M. Duque, M. Redondo, G. Saccente, B. Valdivieso, A. Vázquez
Production : UAB – Máster en teoría y práctica del documental creativo
Year : 2014/2015 (17th edition)


 

“Architecture has its own realm. It has a special physical relationship with life. I do not think architecture primarily as either a message or a symbol, but as an evelope and background for life which goes on in and around it, a sensitive container for the rhythm of footsteps on the floor, for the concetration of work, for the silence of sleep.”

These words from the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor summarize the theoretical framework from which this documentary has taken shape. In this way, we relate the concept of space directly with architecture, due to its ability to construct the space in which we live. Architecture permeates our daily lives in a way that is much more intense than only its symbolic and aesthetic qualities, structuring the system of spaces in which we live and directly intervening in our social life.
In this way, like the Dutch painter Brueghel, who integrates architecture into his landscapes, making them participants in the lives of working class people that inhabit these spaces; we have chosen Ciutat Meridiana as a space to create an urban choreography where neighbors walk, meet up and interact in an established framework. We show characteristic places of the neighborhood with hills, alternative walkways, as well as the only flat area of the neighborhood and its particular internal rhythm dependant on structural elements such as elevators and escalators.

We focus on the collective or groups, and not on an isolated character.We arrive at these urban landscapes, compressing the realities in time and in space, making them coexist and converse. We show each composition in multiple scenes with actions that happen simultaneously, looking for a realistic beauty instead of an idealized beauty. We propose a visual journey for the spectator, guiding them in each scene by means of sound, a fundamental element of our movie.