Barcelona en dos colors A city in dispute?

Abstract

This article aims to reflect, based on the short film Barcelona en dos colors (Diana, 2011), on the conflicts associated with the processes of heritage and museumification in the city of Barcelona. The analysis will be carried out taking as case studies the old Born Market and the prison ‘La Modelo’. The research suggests how the genealogy of the dispute over the significance of spaces runs parallel to the moments of mobilisation and political change, with the years of the Transition and the last decade and a half of the 21st century as the peak periods, both cycles in which the dialectic between citizens and institutions has manifested itself in all its magnitude. In this sense, the conflict over public space and its significance appears as one of the multiple dimensions of the construction of democracy.