FERES
:: Feres (ZINE)
2022
_fanzine
These collage-based illustrations present the complete published layout of FERES #4, a self-published fanzine rthat reflects on the disarticulation of Zorrozaurre’s industrial fabric in Bilbao. The project emerges in response to the ongoing urban transformation of the area, where luxury housing and office developments are reshaping the landscape under the promise of a so-called “New Manhattan.”
The fanzine brings together texts and images inspired by Winding Towers by Bernd and Hilla Becher (1966–97), whose work focused on the systematic documentation of industrial architecture at the moment of its disappearance.
FERES #4 stands as a homage to my city and its industrial past—one that is now being aggressively erased through the systematic dismantling of its industrial heritage.
Zorrotzaurre and the industrial Bilbao
For decades, the neighborhoods of Zorrotzaurre and La Ribera de Deusto were home to a dense industrial fabric: small workshops, medium-sized companies, and major firms such as Relax, Artiach, Vicinay Cadenas, and Toldos Goyoaga. With industrialization came movement, work, and community. Later, economic crisis and structural changes forced industries to relocate, leaving behind empty buildings, abandoned workshops, and increasingly silent streets.In 1995, Bilbao’s General Urban Development Plan reclassified Zorrotzaurre from industrial to residential land. This shift culminated in the approval of the Zorrotzaurre Special Plan in 2011. Today, the area is being reshaped into what has been branded as the “New Manhattan”: luxury housing, office spaces, cultural facilities, and large-scale public infrastructure, spread across 840,000 square meters and backed by an investment of over 250 million euros.
Visual Strategy
Using archival newspapers, industrial machinery catalogs, old photographs, Google Maps images, and contemporary documentation, the fanzine constructs a visual language rooted in classification and accumulation. Like the Bechers’ typologies, these images strip the buildings of spectacle and instead insist on their presence as witnesses of an economic and social history now under threat.MOLOTOV EDITORIAL
Printed in risography // 150 copies
Collage technic.
Material used:
Newspapers
• Municipal Newspaper Bilbao No. 26 (February 1990)
• Municipal Newspaper Bilbao No. 52 (July 1992)
• Municipal Newspaper Bilbao No. 47 (February 1992)
• General Catalog of Industrial Machines and Equipment – Francisco Rufo & Co. (Bilbao)