Jornades Xarxa 9 Barris Acull

For almost two decades, 9 Barris Acull was the district’s welcome centre: legal advice on immigration, language workshops, a neighbourhood solidarity network — and every year, a series of talks that put on the table the questions the rest of the city preferred not to face.

Each edition had its theme. In 2017, different perspectives on Islam and racism. In 2018, discriminatory discourse and its alternatives. In 2019, the new demographic landscape and the challenges of coexistence. In 2022, young people, racism and exclusion. These were not consensus events — they were sessions of intellectual confrontation, with people who lived these issues first-hand.

We attended to document: talks, roundtables, an audience that listens and an audience that speaks up. And the corridors too, the coffees between sessions, the conversations that never make it onto the agenda.

In 2024, 9 Barris Acull closed due to lack of public funding. It had coordinated more than eighty local associations, supported thousands of residents, and built a network that will be difficult to rebuild. The last event we documented was the farewell.

It is an honour to have been a small part of this initiative. It was not a service — it was a structure of rights and dignity. When it gets cut for lack of political will, the loss belongs to everyone.

The work continues in new forms. Prollema is one of the responses: different in format, but sharing the same ethos — rejecting charity and prioritising respect and human rights.

The calendars

For years, the collaboration with 9 Barris Acull went beyond the annual sessions. Each year we co-produced a photographic calendar that made the neighbourhood’s realities visible: women, young people, community projects. A calendar that was not about landscapes or cats — it was about residents and causes.

Many of these calendars took on a life of their own and became exhibitions that toured institutes and civic centres across the region.

Calendar 2024 — “Dones de Nou Barris” (Women of Nou Barris) — 12 initiatives with a feminine lens across the district
Calendar 2023 — “Joves de Nou Barris, superant obstacles” — analogue photography (Leica M4-2, ADOX HR-50), design by Roger Font Micás
Audiovisual 2023 — “Joves de 9 Barris Superant Obstacles” — presented at the Jornades at Nau Bostik
9 Barris Acull calendar archive — earlier editions

Jornades Xarxa 9 Barris Acull

The calendars

Editions documented on the blog