At a time when space and time were radically altered by a global pandemic, looking out the window became one of the few things one could do while confined within four walls.
The movement restrictions imposed by the lockdown in Barcelona forced me to observe a very limited space: the sky, the monotonous silhouette of the city seen from the rooftop—wires, antennas, the apartment blocks of neighbors. And suddenly, amidst the stillness of a cemetery-like city, a trill, a greenfinch—birds that usually go unnoticed and that, during COVID-19, along with many other species, reclaimed the human city as their own.
The greenfinch rests on an antenna, its metal tree, its urban forest.
In a time of enforced stillness, the way we observed the world changed.
Birdwatching became the focus of a new project.
The limitations imposed by the lockdown did not shrink the world; they redefined its scale, bringing clarity to the small miracles within sight.
Time itself seemed to shift, expanding in some moments and collapsing in others.
The usual markers of routine faded away, and in their place, attention turned to the rhythm of light moving across the walls, the changes in the air, the variations in a bird’s song in the morning and evening.
Martin Heidegger spoke of “dwelling,” a deeper, more attentive way of inhabiting space. Perhaps the imposed stillness allowed us to experience space in a more “authentic” way.
The birds were not just birds; they reminded us of the confinement we were enduring.
Perhaps they were a distraction from the atrocities the pandemic was causing.
Perhaps they were reclaiming a space we insist on destroying with our relentless extractivism and ruthless capitalism, against which so many species struggle to resist.
These birds I tried to capture existed in a parallel world.
Whose world was it during the pandemic?
The birds reminded me that reality does not create smooth surfaces but porous ones—there are worlds beyond what we perceive at first glance.
It is about looking into these porous spaces, dusting off forgotten structures, and opening up possibilities for new ways of living.