iMACBA – Museu d'Art Contemporani de BarcelonaRaval
Anna Moreno. The Third Twist
Recent works by Anna Moreno on utopian architecture, centred on The Terminal Beach, a road-movie film about Ricardo Bofill's unfinished 1979 settlement in the Algerian Sahara.
More in Barcelona
Children in the Algerian Sahara try to trade with the film crew in Arabic and French, in front of the sun-bleached facades of a village Ricardo Bofill's studio began in 1979 and never finished. "I'm not photographing ruins," says the narrator of The Terminal Beach. Barcelona knows Bofill for the W Hotel's sail at Barceloneta; this is the one he left in the desert.
You watch the 32-minute film from an artificial dune on the ground floor. Opposite the screen, A Question of Re-entry sets archival Super 8 of Bofill's utopian projects beside footage of Moreno on a motorbike, filming with her own Super 8. Blue and terracotta vinyl covers the windows.
It's three works around one film, so the film is the visit. ArtReview's Caroline Elbaor wrote that Moreno shows "built environments assume a life of their own". It's included in the general MACBA ticket, free for under-16s and Thursday to Saturday from 6pm. First due to close in September, it now runs to 17 January 2027.
Editor's pick
Ricardo Bofill began a settlement in the Algerian Sahara in 1979 and never finished it. Anna Moreno's road-movie film The Terminal Beach goes looking for it, and anchors a show on utopian architecture.
Look for
The Terminal Beach (2024 to 2025)
A 32-minute road movie through Bofill's abandoned Sahara village: orange dunes at purple dusk, skeletal interiors, and residents drawing in the sand.
The dune
Look for the artificial dune in the gallery, which is where you sit to watch the film.
A Question of Re-entry (2026)
Facing the film, archival Super 8 of Bofill's utopian projects plays beside footage of Moreno riding a motorbike with her own Super 8 camera.
Untitled (Mercy) (2026)
Blue and terracotta vinyl laid over the gallery windows, echoing the settlement's geometric forms.
Good for
- Locals Who've Seen It All
- Nerding Out
Skip if
You want paintings or objects: it's three works built around one 32-minute film.
Also at MACBA – Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
9
- Anna Moreno. The Third TwistCourtesy of Anna Moreno and Bernardo Zanotta / MACBA
- The Cult of BeautyJavier Jaén / CCCB
- Barcelona Materials: Local Materials for Regenerative ArchitectureCourtesy of Museu d'Història de Barcelona (MUHBA)
- Gaudí-Miró-Gomis: DeconstructedCourtesy of Casa Batlló
- MACBA – Museu d'Art Contemporani de BarcelonaZarateman / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- CCCB – Centre de Cultura Contemporània de BarcelonaFred Romero / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- Museu Frederic MarèsEnfo / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Museu d'Història de Barcelona (MUHBA)J Irigoyen / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Casa BatllóChristianSchd / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0