spanish_280This is a photographic document of the peaceful revolt and civil disobedience in Madrid’s Plaza del Sol. On 21 and 22 May 2011, thousands of Spaniards marched and pitched tents in central Madrid in protest at the recent budget cuts, bank bailouts and Spanish electoral system, ahead of the country’s regional voting on 22 May. The protestors defied a government ban on political protest ahead of general elections.

“In those two days at the camp in the Plaza del Sol in Madrid, faces were full of hope and optimism. Slogans and banners of cardboard spitting truths. People sitting on the floor spinning politics, environment, health, art, culture, religion. Pedestrians became silent, incredulous, unable to recognise a place that had turned into an ideological battlefield. The short breach in the space of freedom, brought together old and young whilst marginalising dreamers, tourists, residents, students. A world upsidedown, a paradise in the heart of the metropolis. It’s all I know and what I experienced and what I felt. I want only the beginning.”

David Flores
http://www.lacamararoja.com