Ghost Town

Ghost Town symbolizes the Spanish real estate crisis of 2008, a moment in history that deeply scarred the country’s urban and social fabric. The artist draws inspiration from a neighborhood in Estepona, Málaga, where rows of identical, empty, and unfinished houses stand as remnants of an ambitious dream that never fully materialized. These structures, once imagined as symbols of growth and prosperity, are now frozen in abandonment, unfinished and silent.

In order to capture the essence of these ghostly buildings, the artist uses a white sheet coated with resin, which he drapes over the form of the houses. The sheet, like a phantom, takes on the shape of these incomplete homes, leaving behind a delicate, transparent shell. Once the resin sets, the sheet is removed, leaving behind an empty void, a fragile mold that echoes the abandoned urban landscape of Estepona. What remains is the impression of what once could have been—an empty space, hollow and yet full of meaning.

The work invites reflection on the architectural reality of the crisis: entire neighborhoods, drawn up on paper but never inhabited, left to decay before they could ever take life. The technique itself—molding with resin—mirrors the tension between the promise of growth and the stark reality of failure. The sheet, both a medium and a symbol, acts as a transient ghost, capturing the memory of these structures while leaving the viewer with a sense of absence, as if the houses themselves have vanished into thin air.

Ghost Town is not just a commentary on urbanism but on the collective hope and disillusionment that accompanied the boom and bust of the real estate market. It questions the notion of progress, the fragility of plans that fail to materialize, and the haunting emptiness that remains. Through this work, the artist touches on the vulnerability of human ambition and the indelible mark left by a crisis that continues to echo in the abandoned streets of Spanish cities.

Technique: Polyester, fiberglass and acrylic paint.
Dimensions: 90x70x80 cm.
Year: 2016