On Sunday, May 15, 2022, the closing ceremony of the second edition of BARQ – Barcelona International Architecture Film Festival was held at the Disseny Hub Barcelona. The event was also hosted as part of the recent MODEL - Barcelona Architectures Festival.
During the ceremony, the winning films in the two competition categories, feature films and short films, were announced. Learn more about each of them below.
Through the jury's selection, BARQ—which will hold its third edition in 2023—is defining its social message. Rather than merely pleasing the architectural community, the festival aims to go much further, using cinema to present a highly critical perspective on the social realities tied to architecture.
The jury for the Official Feature Film Selection, composed of Ruth Somalo, Marc Serena, and Javier Peña, awarded the prize to the feature film “The Bubble,” directed by Austrian documentarian Valerie Blankenbyl.
The documentary critiques the largest retirement community in the United States (which is predominantly white): The Villages, exposing the dark side of what is marketed as an ideal place to spend one's golden years.
This Florida “urban bubble,” which has grown exponentially and remains ecologically unsustainable, is a misnamed “neighborhood” (as it far exceeds that scale). It wields significant control over regional resources, allowing it to appropriate water and buildable land for its residents while maintaining their luxurious lifestyle. Boasting 96 recreation centers, 54 golf courses, 70 pools, and around 3,000 social clubs, it stands as a vivid testament to the social imbalance, racial inequality, and disparities in opportunity in the United States.
Consequently, residents live in a sort of “Truman Show”—oblivious or indifferent to this reality—relying on their own local media and living a surreal existence with every conceivable amenity. They vote for Trump and casually drive golf carts through the streets of their monotonous neighborhoods, refusing to “see” the decline they assume their country is experiencing. Paradoxically, the development is a paradise for its residents, who remain unconcerned by the damage it causes to local communities, nature, and future generations.
Ultimately, “The Bubble” is a reflection on what a segment of humanity understands (or misunderstands) as “progress” from political, social, and environmental perspectives, raising the question: how can anyone believe these types of developments represent progress for society?
Meanwhile, the jury for the Official Short Film Selection—composed of Júlia Solans, Fredy Massad, and Carolina Ciuti—selected "Storgetnya" as the category winner, highlighting its powerful and sensory impact. The short film was directed by young French-Armenian filmmaker Hogiv Hagopian, who studied cinematography at the Paris film school La Fémis.
"Storgetnya" takes us into the unusual world of an underground clinic located 230 meters beneath the earth, inside the Avan salt mine in Armenia. In these dimly lit spaces, a doctor treats patients by instructing them to perform movements like jumping or swinging their arms, following daily routines that form part of their rehabilitation therapy.
It is a world both strange and magical. Drawing on ancient Greek theories about the healing properties of salt mines, it operates on the belief that the mineral-rich subterranean air cures respiratory ailments. The director spent days filming the activities of this peculiar clinic. The resulting footage evokes a sense of magical realism: excavated tunnels illuminated by fluorescent lights, a ping-pong table inside what appears to be a natural grotto, and a cave repurposed as a waiting room all comprise this fascinating underground therapeutic space.
Both winning films received an award and a cash prize sponsored by the Arquia Foundation.
In addition to the winner announcements and award presentations, the closing ceremony featured a screening of the documentary “The Healing,” directed by Danish filmmakers Hannah Elbke and Natalia Anna Ciepiel. The film follows 1,500 Copenhagen residents living in public housing in Lundtoftegade. Facing the threat of ending up on the government's "hard ghetto list"—which would result in a large percentage of them being forcibly relocated—and unable to engage in dialogue with administrators or policymakers, the residents turn to a community ritual to fight eviction. The ritual, from which the documentary takes its name, involves seeking spiritual help and driving out evil forces to heal their housing estate and alter their destiny.
The jury also awarded special mentions to two other films: the feature film “Building Bastille” by Leif Kaldor—screened at the festival's opening ceremony with the producers in attendance—which tells the story of the construction of the Opéra Bastille in Paris; and the short film “Windows from here” by Luciano Vidigal and Arthur Sherman, which captures the days of pandemic lockdown in Rio de Janeiro's favelas.
Although this marked the closing ceremony, the event did not end there. Following its five-day run in Barcelona, BARQ traveled to Madrid, where the winning feature film "The Bubble" was screened on May 19 at the Círculo de Bellas Artes.
BARQ Festival is an initiative by the production company Nihao Films, supported by prominent architectural organizations including the Mies van der Rohe Foundation, the Arquin-FAD association, the Architects' Association of Catalonia, the ICO Foundation, the Arquia Foundation, and Disseny Hub Barcelona. The success of this second edition far exceeded that of the first, setting high expectations for the third.
This article was written by Mili Sánchez Azcona. The translation is powered by AI.
