Inventory of bridges and viaducts of the Spanish High-Speed (AVE) Madrid-Barcelona line.
High-speed infrastructures represent the materialization of a political and economic logic that, for the sake of territorial vertebration and economic progress, structures the space and in a way, the habits of life. But the criteria on which the State's discourse is based, surpassed a long time ago the criteria of social profitability, becoming a speculative instrument for political power (getting votes) and economic power (redistributing and reinvesting surplus capital).
Speed has become a fundamental value not only for a society that wants to be modern but for the construction of the world in general. Its technological aura and its power of seduction, always up to date, makes it ideal for the purposes of political and economic power. And if the traveller is left without the experience of the place he is passing through, making the territory invisible, the spectator is fascinated by the spectacle without seeing further, "at least you can see where the politicians are spending their money."
This is a tour around the bridges and viaducts of the High-Speed line between Madrid and Barcelona to explore the social and environmental implications of a territory in the shadow of the AVE (Spanish High-Speed). A territory that supports the most powerful infrastructure and emblem of modernity in Spain, but that leaves out the image it projects. An infrastructure that is the fruit of political and economic power at the service of speculation and spectacularisation.
But beyond the effects on the territory: rural depopulation, spatial polarization, territorial tensions, environmental impact, political corruption ... the project reflects on the effects of speed and its spectacular realization. In its journey the project explores the links between photography and railway, the objectification and perception of time, and the fragmentation and representation of space.
