honorable mention
Marcial Guillén Martínez spain
title
El chalet
, (Confined in the "old normal")
On Saturday 14 March 2020, the Spanish government decreed a state of alarm to manage the health crisis caused by the Covid-19 virus pandemic. All shops were closed, except those selling food and "basic necessities", the population was forced to stay indoors and freedom of movement was drastically restricted.
The fact that they came from different countries and cultures, or had different religions, made it difficult for them to live together, but that did not stop them from working collectively on the interior design of an inhospitable space without walls. They used concrete blocks, cardboard, cloth, plastic and other household utensils recovered from the rubbish to build their rooms, showers, dining rooms and even improvised prayer areas to shelter from the inclement weather. Others simply had a mattress to sleep on.
This project documents the conditions in which these illegal immigrants lived during the Covid-19 health crisis and confronts them with two problems of our contemporary society, that "old normal" to which we have become accustomed: economic migrations, driven by the search for better living conditions - which are perversely exploited by human mafias - and the rubble of the real estate bubble of 2008 - which transformed the urban and rural landscape and invaded it with concrete skeletons scattered all over the territory.
The state of alarm lasted 98 days, until 00:00 on 21 June. Then, the government encouraged us to adapt to the "new normal".
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entry description
El chalet (Confined in the "old normal")On Saturday 14 March 2020, the Spanish government decreed a state of alarm to manage the health crisis caused by the Covid-19 virus pandemic. All shops were closed, except those selling food and "basic necessities", the population was forced to stay indoors and freedom of movement was drastically restricted.
The fact that they came from different countries and cultures, or had different religions, made it difficult for them to live together, but that did not stop them from working collectively on the interior design of an inhospitable space without walls. They used concrete blocks, cardboard, cloth, plastic and other household utensils recovered from the rubbish to build their rooms, showers, dining rooms and even improvised prayer areas to shelter from the inclement weather. Others simply had a mattress to sleep on.
This project documents the conditions in which these illegal immigrants lived during the Covid-19 health crisis and confronts them with two problems of our contemporary society, that "old normal" to which we have become accustomed: economic migrations, driven by the search for better living conditions - which are perversely exploited by human mafias - and the rubble of the real estate bubble of 2008 - which transformed the urban and rural landscape and invaded it with concrete skeletons scattered all over the territory.
The state of alarm lasted 98 days, until 00:00 on 21 June. Then, the government encouraged us to adapt to the "new normal".
about the photographer
Marcial Guillén Martínez (1971, Archena, Murcia). He studied image and sound at the Ramón y Cajal Secondary School in Murcia and began working for Diario 16 in 1991. In 1993 he joined La Opinión as a contract photographer and in 2013 he joined the EFE Agency, as a freelancer, in the delegation of that Community. He has published his images in the main national newspapers (El País, El Mundo, ABC, El Periódico de Cataluña, La Vanguardia), in Sunday supplements (El País Semanal, El Magazine) as well as in other international media (The Guardian, The Times, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Le Figaro). He is a founding member and executive of the Asociación de Informadores Gráficos de la Región de Murcia, (AIG), Spain.back to gallery