Colonisation Villages. Glances at an Invented Landscape

The ICO Museum’s exhibition programme for 2024 kicks off with this exhibition that portrays the intense transformation of the Spanish agricultural landscape between 1939 and 1971 and the buildings that emerged as a result of this profound change. It can be visited from 14 February to 12 May. 

The state body responsible for this transformation was the National Colonisation Institute, which planned the construction of new hydraulic infrastructures and more than 300 villages in the rural environment, based on the need for agrarian reform, in which urban, architectural and artistic novelties converge.

The exhibition starts by explaining the historical context in which the new settlements were created and how they transformed the landscape, also showing how they were used as propaganda by the political powers. It then moves on to the blocks of architecture and abstract art, and is rounded off with a block devoted to the inhabitants of the settlements today.  

Image Credit:

Calle de Vegaviana (Caceres) © Ana Amado and Andrés Patiño, 2016