From the 9th October to the 10th January 2016, the Museu Marítim de Barcelona shall host the “Nits de tinta” photographic exhibition. Under this title, is a selection of images taken by the photographers Jake Abbott and Felipe Escolano, members of the Pelut i Pelat studio, which covers the historical memory of les pesqueres, a traditional art of fishing within the area of Marina Alta. Abbott and Escolano, collaborators with Rimontgó, have invested a decade into the work prior to the exhibition, collecting more than ten thousand images and two hundred hours of recordings to finally compile a beautiful exhibition composed of black and white portraits, in which the main protagonists of les pesqueres and their families, as well as panoramas of the locations and sceneries where this traditional art of fishing is world-exclusively practised. The exhibition is completed with an audiovisual presentation, which includes interviews and spectacular underwater images.
Les pesqueres are wattle structures placed at the bottom of the cliffs along the coast of Marina Alta, just above the waters of the Mediterranean, and accessible via narrow paths. They were utilized, in times of economic hardship, by farmers and labourers from localities like Gata, Calpe, Jávea and El Poble Nou de Benitatxell, who supplemented their low pay with this traditional, albeit risky method of fishing, which took place between the Christmas period and spring. During the night, the lighting of carbide lamps helped to attract species like squid, cuttlefish and rockfish towards the coast. The practice of les pesqueres, dating back to the 15th century, fell into disuse as the years went by, although nowadays some of these structures have returned. This link with the Mediterranean Sea is parallel to the other traditional ways of fishing in Ibiza and Formentera, which have also been captured in the audiovisual presentation at the exhibition.
