17 A DAY

Collage, thread, graphite, ink and chalk on paper
90 x 70 cm
2022

In this work they are represented by four buildings, four cases of dwellings who have either been evicted or have been an attempted eviction. There is also a map that shows the different points where it has occurred.

The first case is that of Orriols, the most mediatic, in this house lives a woman and a man with two minors, but the bank claims it to be able to continue speculating with it. It is part of the Divarain vulture fund. They have made 12 eviction attempts without a housing alternative.

The second case is in the center of Valencia, a septuagenarian woman whose rental contract they have not wanted to renew. The eviction was paralyzed until they put an open date on it and there was nothing to do.

The third case is the least information I have managed to collect. It is about a 68-year-old seriously ill person.

The fourth case is that of a large fork, who has the entire block represented in the drawing and wants to kick out an 87-year-old person due to unsanitary conditions. The eviction was paralyzed and they put an open date on it. A few days later they changed the lock, and today, the judge has agreed with the tenant.

These are just four examples of the 17 that occur daily in Valencia. Only one in 10 is suspended. The housing alternative is not enough. Rents go up and the social shield that guaranteed housing is ending, but the pandemic continues.

The process to follow begins by carrying out a study, compiling information, registering the buildings, drawing it by means of restitutions of the different schemes of each building. Then these schemes are passed to the sheet in which the work is to be carried out. Here I used graphite, black ink pen and chalk. While I am collecting information and news about the different cases and at the same time, I choose images that help to compose this story, I restore them and I draw them in graphite. Finally, as if it were a collage, all the pieces are put together: map, illustrations, news, locations, dates…

One of the most important references that has pushed me to carry out this work is the Construint Burjassot housing union, with whom I meet every week to stop this type of injustice and support those who find themselves in this situation. But there are many more organizations that deal with this problem, for a long time the Anti-Eviction Platforms, and more recently neighborhood unions such as Cabanyal, Orriols or Malilla.

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