A wall built by means of mailboxes located at the entrances of residential dwellings, the names of the residents written on the doors of the mailboxes were removed.

"The wall" invites us to reflect on the social consequences of the so-called "gentrification". This urban process of economic speculation is carried out by transnational companies and consists of the massive purchase of housing in the popular neighborhoods of the cities. Once the ownership of these properties has been acquired, the original inhabitants are expelled - using various violent methods - from their rented accommodation. The homes in these urban areas, once emptied of community life, are destined for tourist use or are re-rented to social classes with greater purchasing power or are closed in the hope of being sold in a future revaluation of the urban areas where they are located.

These gentrified neighborhoods become zones of expulsion and social exclusion, enclosed by economic walls. Cities thus become no longer spaces where life takes place, but rather brand-cities - transit spaces destined for compulsive consumption - or places emptied of life or, as the anthropologist Marc Augé would say, "non-places".

Housing understood in this capitalist way -not as a basic right, but only as a good for speculation and economic profit- is framed within the logic of the unhinged neoliberal socio-economic system in which we live.

This work was made specifically for the group exhibition "From Carabanchel to Soho". Ten artists were invited to reflect on the concept of "Gentrification". The exhibition was curated by the urban artist DosJotas and took place in the Madrid art space "la nave imaginable".

This text has been automatically translated by the Deepl app. Due to the nuances of automatic translation, there may be slight differences.