Homage

intervention

Girona, 2015

Many of the names of streets and squares of our towns and cities are given as reminders of historical figures relevant to that place, country or worldwide.

This project questions who and how historical memory is built in our urban landscapes. At the same time, it underlays the relevance of the internet era, apparently an invisible layer of activity that affects our daily activity and our physical spaces.

Homage is a tribute to those who have had a role building or defending our rights in this online environment, considering them as martyrs of our contemporary society. They have sacrificed their lives to warn us of the importance of knowing the terms and conditions of our transit, their consequences, the right to privacy, the power of information and the importance of free knowledge.

3 relevant personalities have named symbolically three spaces in the city of Girona during the Milestone Festival (25-29 June 2015), using the same official plaques to substitute the names of squares and streets without announcing it to the peasants. Rambla Aaron Swartz (normally called Freedom Rambla), Julian Assange Square (called Independence Square) and Snowden Square (originally called Constitution Square), have been the new toponym for those venues.

Aaron Swartz (Liberty Avenue )
“Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves”.

festival milestone 2015 Girona Quelic Berga

Edward Snowden (Constitution Square)
“Citizens have the power to decide if they will sacrifice their privacy for the supervision of the State” festival milestone 2015 Girona Quelic Berga

Julian Assange (Independence Square)
“Internet is a gigantic machine intelligence in the service of power. We must fight this trend and turn it into an engine of transparency for the public, not only for the powerful.” festival milestone 2015 Girona Quelic Berga Homage