Viatje Extraordinari [Extraordinary Journey]
Year: 2013
Rosa Brugat is intimately familiar with the flow of travel—an activity that fascinates her, yet deeply concerns her due to the devaluing effects mass tourism inflicts on cultural heritage. The works in the exhibition critique budget tourism, taking the Gaudí sphere as a point of departure: a relentless tourist magnet ultimately reduced to a kitsch icon. According to Brugat, "if for economic reasons it is practically impossible to give up tourism, we should aspire to make it more discerning and more critical." As Daniel Giralt-Miracle puts it: "We need to elevate the cultural awareness of homo turisticus." How can we achieve this? Perhaps through art, through critical dialogue.
Installation at Bòlit, Girona – La Rambla, Sala Fidel Aguilar
In this installation, Brugat presents an airplane passenger seat surrounded by the visual language and iconography of low-cost flights—specifically Ryanair. The visitor sits in the seat of this imaginary aircraft and puts on a pair of headphones playing the ambient soundscape of a flight between Girona Airport and London Stansted and back. Inside the cabin, promotional material depicts two young women enjoying a botellón (street drinking party) at Hotel Ciutat de Girona.
Viatge extraordinari [Extraordinary Journey] – Bòlit
Installation and Photography at Hotel Ciutat de Girona, Girona
Brugat takes over the hotel with photographs of tourists snapping pictures of Gaudí's architecture alongside images of mass-produced Gaudí souvenirs.