[FANTASIA RESORTS]
If it is true that when we play we immerse ourselves in a parallel universe, in a space-time far from reality, there is probably no better example than Fantasia Resorts, the gigantic recreational complexes of Disney Enterprise, the largest entertainment company in history. As the inventor of theme parks and pioneer of “experience tourism”, Walt Disney understood very early on that the human appetite for escapism could become an industry.
Arnau Rovira portrays the Fantasia Resort at Disney World in Florida, a world within a world made up of 62 km2 , a complex five times larger than that of the town of Getxo. Water parks, hotels, restaurants, sports fields and golf courses show bright, invasive architecture –with monumental objects and characters– through which visitors and workers wander as if they were in a cartoon. Entering a Fantasia Resort is like living a complete experience that is strictly controlled and closed in on itself but where, paradoxically, there is little room for imagination.
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Arnau was born in Barcelona in 1984, where he currently lives and works. He studied Cinematography at ESCAC and began his career in cinema and video. In 2015, he relocated to Madrid, where he studied photography at the EFTI and LENS schools. His work has been exhibited at various festivals including Panòramic, ArtPhoto Bcn, Menorca DocFest, Revela’t, Mirades, Fineart Igualada and Pa-ta-ta in Granada. His photographs have been published in magazines such as El País Semanal, Wired, The British Journal of Photography, GUP, De Morgen, Ignant, and De Standaard. In 2018, he was selected for the Encontros da Artistas Novos residency in Galicia. In 2020, he published his first photobook, A Trilogy of Unusual Architectures (Noom Books), followed by Flash in 2021. Arnau balances his personal projects with assignments related to architecture and design. He is also involved in organizing the Mirades Festival, a photography festival based in Girona.
