We are used to seeing new buildings, full of life and with a future. As if it were a human life, its time of use finishes. This old modernist building, World Heritage Site in 1997 by UNESCU, faces to abandonment after the transfer of its services to a new building. The abandonment is represented by old material, by empty spaces.
Josep Mª de Llobet portrays the abandoned hospital's wounds, a personal project in part because of the tribute to his father, who was doctor in the hospital.
The photographies let us glimpse how one day those spaces were, full of people, from doctors to nurses and of course patients. In Josep María's words it seems as 'if everyone had left minutes before I turned up'.
Description of the project by Josep Mª de Llobet
THE SICK HOSPITAL
In summer 2009, the Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelona finished a long process by which all medical services were moved to a new building. This landmark event marked also the start of a new chapter in the history of a truly unique place. Sant Pau is a special hospital, and not only for its architectural and artistic values that led UNESCO to declare it a World Heritage Site in 1997.
From the moment the building was empty and just before the restoration phase started, I was there with my camera, capturing that fleeting, exceptional instant.
The starting point was the modernist architectural features that responded to the aesthetic ideology in turn-of-the-century Barcelona. The contrast between the original style and the practical and modern updates was striking. A feeling of withdrawal was unavoidable and was increased by the very presence of medical equipment and supplies.
Once there, inside the halls and rooms, underground corridors, I found myself chasing the trail of all the people who had been there before me. Observing the folds of a forgotten blanket, an abandoned gurney in a hallway or a white robe hanging from the handle of a wardrobe, I could follow the traces of busy doctors, fast walking nurses, aching patients and worrying relatives and friends.
In some of the rooms it was as if everyone had left minutes before I turned up. I chased all those traces that mingled with the wounds time had inflicted on the site. The old hospital’s modernist beauty had succumbed to the fight against disease. Now the hospital was sick and all its wounds exposed.
From the moment I got the news that the restoration was imminent and realised there were no doctors or patients, that time had stopped, the need to come back became unstoppable.
I have known this place since I was a kid. My father works here; he is a doctor, the noblest of professions. He heals people. He faces death and decay each day. And for this I’ve always admired him. Hence the need to come back to this place, remain here alone and pay this tribute to him.
Text.- Josep Mª de Llobet.
CREDITS.-
Location.- Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelona, Spain.
Photographer.- Josep Mª de Llobet.
![Aínda sen título. White Letter [#3] to Narelle Jubelin. (Elena Asins · Narelle Jubelin · Anna Turbau). Photograph by Roi Alonso, courtesy of Galería Nordés](/sites/default/files/styles/mopis_home_news_category_slider_desktop/public/lead-images/metalocus_narelle-jubellin_carta-aberta_22_2p.webp?h=3b4e7bc7&itok=ALbdeJ3O "Aínda sen título. White Letter [#3] to Narelle Jubelin. (Elena Asins · Narelle Jubelin · Anna Turbau). Photograph by Roi Alonso, courtesy of Galería Nordés")
