Els escrivents

Scribes or memorialists were part of the urban landscape of the Ramblas. Their job was to write, either by hand or by typewriter, taking dictation or "writing out" what the client asked for. These could be letters of various kinds or even administrative documents. They wrote quickly, neatly and without spelling mistakes. It is not known when the first scribes appeared in the city of Barcelona, but in the mid-18th century there were already letter-copying shacks in the Sant Jaume Square. A century later, in the 1860s, they moved to the side of the Palau de la Virreina, where they remained for many years. Ana Ruiz, the last known scribe in Barcelona, carried out her activity until 1991.

The scribes is a performance on the Ramblas that is open to the public, an action that reclaims the most poetic and creative side of a profession that has now disappeared. For five days, several participants in the Utopia Rambles exhibition will act as scribes for passers-by who wish to do so.

Useful links:

www.marlajacarilla.es 
www.enriquebaeza.com 
www.ortesia.online 

An initiative by Utopia Rambles 

With the participation of Cecilia Vieira, Enrique Baeza, Marla Jacarilla, Jordi Vizcaíno and Ortésia Cabrera

Cecilia Vieira explores urban tensions through artivism, counter-advertising and corporal research. The urban as a place of investigation and confrontation of realities. She works through the body, contemplated as a political space.

Enrique Baeza is an artist whose work gravitates around the slogan Reality is Spam and uses the word as a social catalyst. He has travelled to more than 50 cities making interventions in public space through language.

Marla Jacarilla is a visual artist, writer and film critic. She develops her work through techniques such as writing, performance, video and installations.

Jordi Vizcaíno is an activist philosopher, educator of Seitai spontaneity, radio broadcaster, presenter and event organiser, writer, calligrapher, drawer, street poet, chromatic performer, singer and dancer.

Ortésia Cabrera articulates reified postcoloniality in her neurodivergent, non-binary trans, rural and Catalan body to make a multidisciplinary aesthetic. You can say punk, though, if you prefer. Or love.

Language: catalan and spanish