Submission

'La huerta y la ciudad' ('The orchard and the city) This is an in progress work on the relationship between two characteristic parts of the city of Murcia (Spain) and its vicinity. The city has been surrounded by an orchard since the Middle Ages. The development of the city over the past few decades, however, resulted in a slow but steady takeover process, in which the city gained both physical and cultural territory over the orchard. The orchard is still vast and vigorous, providing for many, but the city has spread and consequently overtook some of the traditional orchard areas. The two distinct parts represent different lifestyles, cultures and visual environments. At their ever- changing borders they coexist, and the presence of the other is felt even where not seen. Although the orchard and the city might be conceived as two distinct areas of the land and the way of life of its inhabitants, their borders are not necessarily sharply drawn, neither physically, nor culturally. There are numerous ways in which the organic and the artificial overlap in the life of the people, and their coexistence also creates a unique visual landscape. It is characteristic of the Murcian visual experience to come across scenes in which the orchard and he city, the organic and the artificial come together, so that we may observe their slow and silent struggle for their future.