Barcelona, ESP

2025

Honorable Mention in the 2025 Llum BCN Young Talent Award for community engagement

What if, in the absence of light, we could see what was once hidden?
That question guided Eixir, a site-specific installation created by MEATS students Elisava School of Design and Engineering for the Llum BCN Festival 2025.
Installed on a metal wall in Poblenou, a wall long used for protest graffiti and political expression. The project reimagines darkness not as the absence of knowledge, but as a force of revelation. Inverting Enlightenment ideals, Eixir uses shadow to amplify what is often silenced: the voices of a community fighting for the redevelopment of their square and its renaming to Plaça Manel Andreu, in honor of a local activist.
In Catalan, eixir means “to emerge”, to become visible after being hidden. True to its name, the installation was developed in close collaboration with the Poblenou Neighborhood Association and local residents through surveys and participatory workshops, including creative sessions with children from the Sant Martí public school. Participants shared memories, emotions, and hopes for the site, which were transformed into stenciled messages projected by torches housed in wooden boxes.
To reveal these messages, we designed an interactive light system: LED strips and motion sensors responded to the presence of visitors. As people approached, the lights gradually dimmed, allowing the messages to emerge in darkness. We also constructed benches from repurposed materials, inviting passersby to pause and reflect.
More than an artwork, Eixir is a collective gesture of memory, resistance, and belonging. It reclaims public space through community voices and transforms a neglected wall into a living archive of neighborhood struggles, honoring everything from the dismantling of the electrical substation to ongoing protests against gentrification.