There are places that seem doomed to not exist when the road that leads to them stops, for some reason, being traveled. Places that were once mostly transitory, unpleasant, that appear to be populated by anonymous people whose fragile traces will barely leave a mark, condemned to a small corner of memory. Located at the top of a hill, between the basins of the Llobregat and Segre rivers, La Panadella could well have been one of them. For a long time it was used as a regular resting place by the drivers of vehicles that circulated on the busy N-II, between Barcelona and Lleida. Until one day, a highway took him off the map of progress. However, the strong and rough characteristics of the place seem to recover their identity under the disturbing gaze of Juan Sánchez (Barcelona, 1984), to give way between the rough crevices of the site to a story full of enigma and history: Panadella (Ediciones Anómalas), the photobook, winner of the VII edition of the Fotocanal contest, organized by the Community of Madrid.
A dark landslide introduces the reader to the narrative. It refers to the physical, social and economic situation of this suburb of Montmaneu, in Lleida, a municipality of only 154 inhabitants. To the state of decay of a place that is no longer at the axis of a communication system and whose solidity is detached. He is followed by the image of a car approaching at dusk along a vast esplanade covered in snow; On the next page, the close-up of a footprint marked on a step warns of a presence and outlines the tone of a story full of tension and uncertainty. A narrative where the severe and distrustful faces of the protagonists are interspersed with small details and a pulse is established between fantasy and fiction, between the struggle of a remote community to stay afloat and its disappearance.
We will know that more than 400 years ago, in that place, Pepe Barbeta, leading one hundred bandits, assaulted a royal convoy loaded with silver coins destined for the thirds of Flanders. That in the 19th century, the town was the scene of the execution of Elizabethan soldiers at the hands of the Carlists. And that, between 1939 and 1952, it was marked by the black market, by those who took advantage of the night to move their goods and at dawn hid in the hostels. “Stranger is the word that best defines the feeling that accompanies one upon arrival,” highlights Sánchez during a video conference with Babelia, while warning of the influences of cinema on his work and his fascination with border environments. “You encounter elements that lead you to think that something is happening or is about to happen. And he leaves the place without anything having happened, or what is worse, with the feeling that he has not understood anything that he should understand.
The author spent nearly four years shaping the project. To do this he used both the peculiar climatic elements of the area, known for its dense fogs and copious snowfalls, and a subtle use of color. A job where content is more important than form. Where images become metaphors, like a hole in the asphalt, which alludes to the imaginary universe of La Panadella; dried thistle flower; the scar on a waiter’s head; or the wooden relief of a dog that could very well bark in the darkness alerted by the events that are looming over the town. Likewise, the photographer will use the detail of an oil painting as a resource, or the carved figures of two horses. “The narrative of the book starts from the place but does not talk about the present, as would be expected from the photographic medium, it does not make use of the power of notarial act of reality that is attributed to it. Photography is capable of documenting everything that we are capable of imagining and telling,” highlights the author. Thus, the main road does not appear at any time. “The book is the road itself,” highlights the photographer as he points to what could be the entrance sign, on the cover, and the exit sign, on the back cover. Before, the face of a man with his eyes closed warns the reader of the indelible memory of the place. As the text included in the publication recalls, “La Panadella is still there, a land open to whatever comes. And the name remains, known beyond its borders, especially by everyone who has been a stranger here.”
‘Panadella‘. Juan Sanchez. Anomalous Editions/Community of Madrid. 80 pages. 35 euros.
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