In search of lost time

A rose is a rose is the title chosen by Eduard Moyà and Pere Lacomba for their project on the contemporary history of El Terreno, organised by the Camper Foundation and Casa Planas. The title comes from a poem by Gertrude Stein, and features in her book Geography and Plays which she wrote during her stay in that legendary neighbourhood of Palma in the year 1914.

“Stein said that every individual has a concept of what a rose is, and that when they put it into practice, they reveal their own vision. Which is why, when we interviewed the people who appear in the book, we realised that each one has their own particular vision of El Terreno, and this symphony of individual voices forms a whole, as though each one were a rose”, the authors of the book explain.

During the first half of the 20^th century, El Terreno was the quintessential district of Palma where tourists mingled with local and foreign artists. “A network was created which organised talks in establishments in Plaza Gomila, films in original language were screened and the Bellver instructive society was founded, with the aim of shaping the district culturally. Intellectuals like Borges took part in these sessions. Back then El Terreno was a bit like Paris, but on a smaller scale”, say Moyà and Lacomba.

El Terreno was also the place that sparked off mass tourism. “In the early 1930s there were about 30 establishments if we count hotels, guest houses and boarding houses, some of them emblematic like the Hotel Mediterráneo or the Hotel Victoria”. All of these hotels closed during the Civil War, and did not open up again until well into the ‘50s. “That was when [...]

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