MURS (walls) Exhibition in Barcelona Pompeu Fabra

Moving and migrating are some of the most intrinsic acts that define us as living beings, a kind of telluric confrontation with the most elemental. However, with the emergence of the first civilizations came the notion of territorial boundaries, conceived as a means to protect territory, resources, and identity.

If in ancient times borders became real through walls and fortifications, the construction of the modern world has gradually dematerialized these physical barriers. Today, however, we watch in disbelief as thousands of kilometers of walls and fences proliferate across Europe. At the same time, migration policies focus on militarization, externalization, and the criminalization of migrants and refugees. Wealth flows from every corner of the Global South toward financial centers, but never the other way around. While goods and capital from the North circulate globally without restrictions, millions of refugees risk their lives fleeing armed conflicts, structural poverty, political persecution, or environmental disasters. The ancient Mare Nostrum, cradle of the West and bridge of civilizations, has become the largest mass grave in the world. And as it becomes evident that dominant neoliberalism increases social and economic inequalities, a political vacuum opens that favors the rise of far‑right populism.

Centered on the geopolitical framework of a “fortress Europe,” the MURS project analyzes the concept of the border in its full semantic dimension. These barriers—whether natural (oceans, deserts, mountains, etc.), artificial (walls and fences built by humans), related to transit (the externalization of border management), legal (immigration laws), biopolitical (control, detention centers, Frontex deportations, etc.), social (racism, labor exploitation, lack of rights…), or even virtual (bureaucratic control, monitoring, etc.)—are explored through a wide range of realities and case studies.

The MURS exhibition has been produced by the Institut de les Desigualtats (Institute of Inequalities) with the support of the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation and the Barcelona City Council.

It is an exhibition that has travelled through different cities across Catalonia (Valls, Reus, Lleida, El Vendrell, Igualada, Alcarràs, etc.) and was most recently presented in the sadly famous fourth gallery of Barcelona’s former Model prison.

Badalona Pompeu Fabra metro station (L2) . Concourse, Av. Martí i Pujol exit