The Salt Mountain of Barcelona: exhibition at Disseny Hub, Barcelona

The ocean speaks. New ecologies and new economies of the seas

From October 10 2024, the Embassy of the North Sea presents research and work on the Llobregat Delta Barcelona and the salt mountain of sallent at Disseny Hub, Barcelona’s design museum. The work, commissioned by Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana will be presented as part of the exhibition The ocean speaks. New ecologies and new economies of the seas (10 October 2024 — February 23 2025). The exhibition analyses the impact of human action on marine ecosystems and reflects on how the city’s relationship with the sea can be redesigned through an innovation-based approach.

The Salt Mountain of Sallent

The installation of the Embassy of the North Sea in Disseny Hub reflects research on a the second highest mountain in the vicinity: the El Cogulló salt deposit. This man-made geological feature is an enormous pile of sodium chloride: table salt, a waste product from the potash mine of Sallent. In 2016 the European Union demanded that the multinational mining company ICL remove the salt mountain within 50 years. It remains to be seen if this deadline will be met and who bears the ecological and financial costs. The mountain is a monument to ecological damage, corroded homes, salinised groundwater and rivers.

The Brine Collector

Running parallel to the river, from the mines in the mountains to the Mediterranean Sea is a network of pipes called the brine collector. It aims to keep saltwater out of the river and move it directly into the sea. However, it has experienced big and small leakages, causing serious damage to farmland and ecosystems. This process has transformed the river and its banks into a peculiar, salty ecosystem. Plants and animals that typically thrive near the sea now live far inland, adapted to the saline environment.

Salt, Salt Everywhere

Few residents of the Barcelona Metropolitan region venture into the water of the Llobregat, yet its water flows through their bodies since a large portion of the drinking water comes from the river. Water from the river and the Mediterranean is treated in a desalination plant near the coast at great cost of energy and money. This produces drinkable freshwater and very salty wastewater, which is mixed with wastewater from the city and pumped into the sea through a 2.2 km pipe. Though the potash mines and salt mountains may feel far away, their impact reaches far into the ecosystem, the city, its inhabitants and the sea.