Representaciones del subsuelo

Abstract

Abstract

This article examines various artistic proposals centred on one of the least known of our urban spaces, yet at the same time one that is among the most fundamental for our society: city sewers. While they form a complex sanitary network, they have other uses to those for which they were originally designed. Initially, the restructuring of the sewer systems at the end of the nineteenth century meant a great advance for cities of the western world, especially in terms of their health and hygiene. But at the same time as diseases were being eradicated thanks to the elimination of human faeces, there emerged a parallel industry based on waste management. In this way, a series of problems surfaced centred on the administration and management of wastewater, which directly threatened our ecosystems. Likewise, the building of the sewer infrastructure led to the emergence of different figures – in the first instance, sewage workers and engineers, but also fugitives and the homeless, who began to move around in these underground tunnels and even to live in them. These individuals form a community in their own right– one that is invisible to the rest of the city. By drawing on works of art and cinema that deal with this view from below ground, this paper analyses the multiple representations that have been generated by these subjects and the channels in which they live and move around in.