Tuset Street - pop primitivism, thesis by Guillem Celada

Guillem Celada, graduate of the University Master's Degree in Research in Art and Design (MURAD) at Eina, attached to the Doctoral Programme in Philosophy at the UAB, publicly presents his thesis Tuset Street - pop primitivism on Thursday 7 November at 4pm at Eina Sentmenat.

This research, led by Dr. Alex Mitrani and Dr. David Casacuberta, explore the relationship of design and art linked to the Tuset Street brand given the key role they played in the construction of this symbolic space in Barcelona and in the resolution of the places in which a sort of legend will develop. The meeting of new forms of culture and leisure promoted Tuset Street as the reference area for the birth of local pop culture.

Between 1966 and 1972, Carrer Tuset in Barcelona was commercially renamed Tuset Street. This brand promoted the commercial, business and leisure axis.

Tuset Street is a name coined by the photographer Oriol Maspons which in the mid-1960s summed up a location and a concept: that of a new and modern commercial axis in Barcelona, Carrer Tuset, which was so much, and wanted to be so much, that it was compared to London's Carnaby Street.

The desire to characterise, mark and sell this part of the city as the epicentre of cultural connections with foreign countries led this commercial brand to become synonymous with values that some were attracted to and others rejected.

The arrival of foreign influences on local culture turns this space-time in the city into a focus for public debate about new forms of behaviour and consumption that reveal conflicts of class and identity.

- Cover image: Exterior of the Drac Drugstore. Dolça Catalunya magazine issue. 4 October 1968. Photograph by unknown author. 

- Images:
Marquee of The Pub Tuset. Triunfo magazine number 281. 21 October 1967. Photograph by Xavier Miserachs.
Boutique Ferrer at Galeries Arcadia. Photograph published in the magazine Mundo Joven (issue 53, 4 October 1969).
Boutique Conti on the corner of Carrer Tuset and Carrer Granada in Penedès. Project by Joaquín Gallardo from 1969 - 1970. Joaquín Gallardo personal archive.
Sign of the now defunct shop La Papereria Tuset, intervened to Catalanise the original name in Spanish.