Handshake

22440 private pools, 1 million square meters of water for private enjoyment, 587 km of pool edges, or a 163 km long river if we line them all up. However, we are in one of the areas with the most water scarcity in Spain.

This research project reveals layers of information not only about swimming pools but also about the speculative value of the land, territorial policies, traditional orchards, displaced land, hedonistic practices, second homes, and tourism.

We are in a territory that has been transformed in the last 50 years. If the water has traditionally been used for irrigating orchards, the trend in recent decades has been to use it also for private enjoyment. The private pool is a status symbol that also acquires the ability to be a marker of the lifestyle that developers propose and sell in Vega Baja.

A research and performative project by Diego Abellán and Joaquín Lucas.

The Orange Tower is an old metal electrical tower of which only its outer structure remains. The tower is located next to a road, surrounded by orange groves, tiger nut dryers, palm plantations and abandoned farmhouses. It provided electricity to the nearby pig farms. Today, in ruins, the tower intervened by LUCE works as an element of dialogue with his surrounding context.

All the contents in this publication are part of the creative process of artist Juan de Dios de Morenilla. It features sketches, doodles, stickers and composition studies that never saw the light as finished paintings. It’s therefore a collection of rejected ideas, the characters that live in notebooks, a lie in and on itself. Printed and binded by Handshake and bruise studio at Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin. September 2022.