El Pumarejo management team: Maria Pleguezuelos, Nico Sammut, Xavi “Jimpac” Sánchez, Juan Luis Batalla, Patricia Galí and Pau Balaguer
Given so much global uncertainty, we propose a trip that doesn't require big budgets or too much exposure to the elements.
A journey to the center of a cultural movement that recalls certain influential episodes of the past that are still studied in art schools, like those of Fluxus inspired by the ideas and practices of John Cage, or Cabaret Voltaire and its Dadaists, who formed manifestos against the social stagnation of that first post-World War II.
For the traveler looking to immerse himself in local culture and enrich his sensory-emotional experience, one option is to turn off the applications, flee the center in search of the suburbs and find out where local initiatives are sheltered, those created by and for the neighbors, where there is no speculation on the price of beer and, if you get hungry, you can have a snack in the same place with mechanics, seamstresses or, in this case, young producers of experimental music.
One of the spaces of El Pumarejo
A few stops away from the Plaza de España in Barcelona, in Hospitalet, is the new premises of El Pumarejo, a cultural association in which some young people from the post-Covid generation – almost all of them born between 1993 and 1994 – create new contexts for an interdisciplinary culture that is fresh as well as effervescent.
The first version of this association was opened in the neighborhood of Vallcarca , upon returning from studying in London, to dedicate himself to music independently and self-sufficiently.
When the building where they had already managed to make themselves known and establish a faithful membership was put up for sale –which enthusiastically showed up to each event without needing much prior information about the exponents– they found this former headquarters of the Senda de Vida Christian Church, of which only rubble remained and a nursery with drawings on the wall that caused more nightmares than the desire to play.
Creative freedom directs the rudder of El Pumarejo
Together they got to work last summer to clean, paint, assemble and build. Here one goes from making music in one of the upstairs studios to serving behind the bar or repairing a pipe if needed.
In a short time they continued programming and giving space to all those scenic and musical proposals who would otherwise take a little longer to find a place to perform before a receptive audience.
Ikram Bouloum, emerging DJ and producer of the local electronic scene, who is welcomed with open arms at MACBA or festivals like Mutek or Sónar+D, and with experience programming Sala Vol, he feels that this city has always been open to new ideas and forms, but what makes El Pumarejo unique is this youthful energy with such focused and clear minds.
The DJ, producer and humanist Ikram Bouloum
“In this space they not only show a final product, but a way of working that is just as interesting to see. They are establishing a new way of living, in which many things can happen. They do not specialize in a single genre. This worries people, because they don't see it in other places, where perhaps everything is more predictable”.
After any type of recession or intercontinental catastrophic event, an explosion of creativity among the youth, out of necessity and as a reaction.
This generation has already grown up hearing the cries of their older brothers or relatives in the face of an anguished situation promoted by the media and **with this even more bleak panorama, they come with their backpacks loaded for survival.
"They are establishing a new way of living, in which many things can happen"
"With a laptop and a mobile you can mess it up!" Producer Mans O assures us, half laughing but from a certain experience, with that brilliant gaze possessed by those who see a luminous horizon from the moment they open their eyelids. And don't blink.
Last year he delivered an ambitious three-part hard drive album titled Three Stages Of Change Appreciation. that he managed to present at the Convent de Sant Agustí and at Sónar, with his ambitious vision wrapped in what master Cage called intermedia.
Screens, everyday objects, power strips, cables, dance and space for improvisation using the body as one more element.
Daniel Roman aka Mans O
A type of artistic ambition that feeds on the freedom to experiment in a space like this, where it has an audience that does not come to judge, but to be part of the development as witnesses.
In this group of friends, of which there are those who have known each other since they were three years old and have shared a flat and work in other countries, it is appreciated that there is everything that is needed to have control of the reins in troubled times; unity, commitment, bravery and a bit of hooliganism, but without total waste.
Everyone recognizes that "the Pumarejo roll" carried a certain fame of amateurism and lack of control in its beginnings, like any project started by young people who jump into the pool and invent it as they go.
Journey to the center of a utopia
Battle , who is "the handyman" and the organization's technician explains that "We didn't have time to plan and do things seriously from the beginning, because everything was going by itself."
Miguel Robres, young member of the band Holy Bouncer –Who lived part of its genesis in the previous space– and a promoter who organizes gigs for emerging bands such as Family Time, Oracle Sisters and Alavedra in all kinds of rooms and spaces in the city, he is a staunch ambassador of the association, and he agrees with Ikram that the concerts he organizes or attends here have a special energy.
But he needed the management to take the professionalization of the space more seriously in order to bring his proposals, that usually mobilize a local public wanting to dance as if there were no tomorrow and reach high levels of collective euphoria.
A few stops on the outskirts from the Plaza de España in Barcelona, in Hospitalet, is the new premises of El Pumarejo
Without having to insist too much, Xavi, Juan Luis, María, Pati, Pau and Nico were already taking action on the matter to impose a little order in the management of the room.
If before there was a bit of chaos, now it prevails a responsibility that inspires regulars to take care of the space as a home.
Ferran Ávila, aka Le Ranso from Disco Duro, One of the resident groups comments that very special synergies are generated when you are surrounded by your friends and with all your gadgets at hand.
The Disco Duro collective, formed by Oly, Le Ranso and Popo
“Before, if I wanted to spend an afternoon with colleagues, I would go to the bar to have beers because it is the only place where I could meet. But here I have a place where I can create, where you have a drum kit, a keyboard, a DJ table... even if you're hanging out, if you feel like playing the drums you start playing, or you practice with the guitar and something interesting comes out, when deep down you had only come to spend the afternoon without pretensions ", he comments.
"El Pumarejo has managed to become a space where many people gather to nurture that creative energy without everything being planned. It is common for there to be people who meet another with whom they share the same enthusiasm for doing things and set up another parallel project”, concludes Ávila.
You come?
Something similar happened to Clara Aguilar and Laura Weissmahr, two representatives of the immersive performing arts collective VVAA, which in parallel formed the Pussy Picnic side with a more feminine character.
“There is a common language when creating. We have diverse formations and not strictly scenic. Here there is a link between people who want things to happen to them in life”, says Clara.
Under the umbrella of VVAA everyone has loyal followers who flock to whatever happening they advertise on their website, and established venues like the Beckett need no persuasion to include them on their billboard.
Clara Aguilar and Laura Weissmahr, writer and actress for VVAA and Pussy Picnic
“We bring new audiences. There are times that in other spaces they see us a little strange, but the cultural sector is interested in filling seats”, reflects this young woman who does not define herself as an actress but who does not hesitate to go on stage with courage.
While Mans O has the support of specialized critics since he uploaded his first songs to SoundCloud in 2014, and Ikram Boulum shares representation with Bad Gyal, It is the young women Helena Ros and Marta Torrella –who form the a cappella duo of Mediterranean folk Tarta Relena– who have the potential to fill auditoriums, if circumstances allow it.
“When the repertoire was taking shape and aesthetic coherence, we did a gig in the old Pumarejo where we felt that we were heard and that the concert was as we had it in mind. That's where our love story with space arose”, they say between laughs, one finishing the sentences of the other.
Helena Ros and Marta Torrella (Relena Cake)
“In our project we are plotting a liturgy with energies that mutate together with the public. There is a concentration that we seek and this space encourages that connection and magic to arise.”
And so, in this area of industrial buildings, we find a microutopia in which minds and bodies feel safe, ready to play and travel without moving much, generating positive energies and without taking too many health risks or worrying about that version of life that the spokesmen of a certain established (dis)order insist on blackening. Long live the Pumarejo.
"We bring new audiences"
Here artistic expression is the answer
*This report was published in the number 142 of the Condé Nast Traveler Magazine (autumn). Subscribe to the printed edition by calling 902 53 55 57 or from our website. Condé Nast Traveler issues are available in ** their digital version to enjoy it on your preferred device. and you can buy them at the Condé Nast online store**