In 2019 I made a photographic series that documents the current appearance of a part of the Modelo prison in Barcelona. Contrary to what happened with the Carabanchel building, the La Modelo panopticon building has been preserved and created in it a historical memory center, among other things, where visitors can find out what happened within the walls while it was open.
When approving the opposition to the corps of prison assistants in 1973 with the number 4 in order of score, my father requested the Barcelona Model as a destination.
«The Model was conceived with the aim of being an exemplary prison. Built on the outskirts of Barcelona in 1904, the prison occupied two islands in the Eixample and featured an innovative architectural design in the form of a panopticon: starting from a central polygonal body – where the guards were located – six galleries with 600 cells were born radially. the prisoners were housed. This structure, inspired by the theses of the British jurist and philosopher Jeremy Bentham and designed by Salvador Vinyals Sabaté and Josep Domènech Estapà, allowed for an exceptional surveillance and control system. Throughout the 20th century, as Barcelona grew around it, La Model became the place where people participating in riots of all kinds were imprisoned. During the Franco regime, the cells in this compound housed thousands of political prisoners, especially during the 1940s, during the great postwar repression. The priest of La Model, in fact, highlighted the excessive overcrowding of the prison in 1941. In addition, within its walls there were at least 24 executions with a vile club that are documented today.»
