June 14, 2009

Surfacing
From Out to In, in Barcelona
By LIONEL BEEHNER

A CIRCLE of young trapeze artists, jugglers and flamenco dancers took a smoking break from their practice. After refusing to be interviewed — he did not want the publicity — the pony-tailed leader of the troupe disappeared into a hangar-sized warehouse he had converted into a circus, replete with funhouse mirrors and a kiosk selling crepes.
Underground performance art is just one way the industrial landscape of Poblenou is remaking itself. A part of Barcelona formerly known as “Catalonian Manchester,” the area is increasingly drawing young artists, musicians and designers. To depict a sweatshop in his upcoming film “Biutiful,” the Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu chose Poblenou.
“I love its industrial character and proximity to the beach,” said David Valls, a 37-year-old designer who moved to Poblenou eight years ago. “There’s a nice mix of old-fashioned folks, artists and businessmen.”
The renewal of the neighborhood is part of a plan called 22@Barcelona, hatched in 2001 to revitalize Poblenou as a hub of technology, innovation and design. Derelict apartment blocks and textile factories are being refashioned into fine arts and design schools, and warehouses into office space for new media, financial and high-tech companies like T-Systems and Yahoo.
Until recently, the main reasons to come to this part of town, a few subway stops east of La Rambla, Barcelona’s main tourism artery, was to snap a photo of the bulbous Torre Agbar or to catch a rock concert at Razzmatazz (Carrer dels Almogàvers, 122; 34-93-320-8200; www.salarazzmatazz.com), the city’s premier live venue.
Now lithe models loaf poolside next to their rock-star soul mates at Pete Wentz’s Angels & Kings lounge at the ME Hotel (Pere IV, 272 286; 34-93-367-2050; www.me-barcelona.com). The high-rise hotel, which opened last summer, caters mostly to an elite crowd (each of its 258 units comes equipped with a bottle of oxygen, according to the hotel’s “aura experience manager”). A few blocks away, a beat-up brick factory was repurposed into a bar and performance space called La Farinera del Clot.
Yet not everyone is sold on the neighborhood’s sweatshop-chic décor. “There’s some interesting new buildings,” said Michael Karli, 36, a Swiss engineer, visiting the nearby Expo. “But it feels like it’s trying too hard to impress. The streets still feel too quiet.”
A welcome exception is Rambla del Poblenou, the leafy main promenade lined with cafes, wine shops and tapas bars, where locals push strollers, walk their dogs, and clutch bags of baguettes.
After some quiet time in the recently opened Parc del Poblenou, a walled-off triangular slice of greenery, head to Recasens (Rambla del Poblenou, 102; 34-93-300-8123), a restaurant known for its Mediterranean-style fondue and carpaccio. Then go to Razzmatazz for a full night of head-banging music.
The main knock against Poblenou is its isolation, but that is expected to change in a few years after a nearby tram line is extended.
“For one hundred years Poblenou was desolate,” said Daniel Caruncho, an editor of ADN, a freebie newspaper. “Now the city wants it to be the ‘New Barcelona.’ ”