Habita et Labora

An exhibition allowing visitors to explore and enjoy the 68 most beautiful industrial colonies in Europe, thanks to the photographs by Lluís Casals. The aim of the exhibition is to provide a vision of the industrial textile colonies through the photographer's gaze, capturing in his work both an artistic and a heritage vision, while also offering highly precise images of what the industrial colonies are today.

The photography exhibition forms a part of a broader perspective aiming to explain and showcase the great many industrial colonies built in Catalonia in the early 20th century, mainly for cotton fabric production. The colonies represented a new model of territorial urbanisation that was entirely innovative and broke with the structures previously developed in the inland districts of Catalonia. They represented new population centres, where the owners were the driving forces behind social, cultural and religious relationships.

The exhibition comprises sixty photographs of industrial colonies, positioned on a map of the river basins and divided into six groups: landscape, the master's residence, energy, industrial architecture, workers' accommodation and life in the colony. The 10 photographs in each section contextualise the current state of these sites, little known today, and describe the most significant features of their past operational life. The photographic exhibition is supplemented by original exhibits from a number of these industrial colonies.