Hanna Hussein experiences the culture and art of two major cities in Europe and South America
SHARP at 9pm, the Zoom window on my laptop suddenly turns on, showing an awe-inspiring video of Barcelona, the capital of Spain's autonomous community, Catalonia.
The video takes me and my sister on a fast-paced virtual tour, visiting some of the city's iconic landmarks, including Antoni Gaudi's famous artworks like the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia and Casa Batllo.
With Ed Sheeran's Barcelona track in the background, we feel like dancing to the catchy beat as the video takes us on a stunning route going from one place to another, strolling along a pathway which later brings us to a quaint shoe shop on the street of the Gothic Quarter in the city.
It is one of the flagship stores of Homemade Avarcas and Espadrilles, a local shoe shop selling traditional shoes made by hand.
Inside, we are welcomed by the cheery hosts, Luis and Kathe, the founder and artisan couple of Handmade Barcelona.
"Today, we will be travelling around Barcelona and we are going to be making shoes!" says Luis.
ESPADRILLES WORKSHOP
Together with us today are also other participants from two continents — Lucie from Prague, Czech Republic and a mother-daughter pair from the United States, Debbie and Kate (who, surprisingly, have joined the espadrilles workshop for the eighth time!).
The couple begin the session by introducing themselves and their business, the Handmade brand for their beautiful pairs inspired by the traditional Catalonian culture.
Luis, who was an engineer, and his wife, Kathe, the designer, are both into fashion, and they have been making shoes by hand in Barcelona for more than 10 years.
In the beginning, they made mainly leather shoes, and then they fell in love with the traditional Espadrilles. According to Luis, they make at least 10,000 pairs per year.
He adds that there are at least three artisans at each shop who can custommake the shoes in real time.
They also launched a few franchises in the United Arab Emirates in March 2019, but these were put on hold due to the pandemic. The shops recently reopened and the couple are planning to fly there soon to train the staff to stitch and customise the espadrilles. For now, the shops sell only ready-made shoes.
The couple started their first espadrilles workshop in 2017, but they started to host the workshop virtually when Airbnb first launched Online Experiences. In fact, they were one of the first 20 hosts in the world to join.
The interactive session lets participants learn more about Catalonian culture, especially espadrilles, which has since gained worldwide popularity.
"So, what do you think the word espadrilles means?" asks Luis, who is fluent in English, French, Spanish as well as Chinese.
The first-timers in our group only manage to shrug our shoulders, clueless.
Luis then asks Debbie and Kate since they have joined the workshop numerous times. Kate, the daughter, answers, "It means nothing".
"Exactly! It means nothing!" Luis and Kathe exclaim. It's a Catalan word (the language the locals speak in Barcelona) that is derived from espardenya, which is a type of plant.
According to Luis, there's nothing special about the plant because it easily breaks and it pinches.
However, long ago, poor people in Spain didn't have the means to get cotton, leather or linen and the only thing they could get for free was this plant. And, as the famous proverb goes, necessity is the mother of invention, which is why the plant is used to make shoes.
Making footwear using the plant is no easy job. It is a laborious process that takes 48 hours and the first step is to soak the plant in running water for 24 hours.
Then, it is hammered for at least six hours to extract the hard fibres. This is to create fine pieces of thread, which are then braided into ropes. The braided rope is then spun into a snail-like shape to create the sole.
To complete the shoe, old clothes are then sewn as the shoe top. Luis also shows us how the people solved the sizing issue during the era, by stitching a rope on top of the clothes to make it adjustable.
The espadrilles is so lightweight that it can be used for long hours, which is why it became the working shoes for poor people in Catalonia, back in the day.
However, there was one specific person that changed the whole destiny of espadrilles and he was Salvador Dali, the famous Spanish surrealist artist. He was the first rich Catalan person to wear the shoes of the poor. He was the legend who wore espadrilles, an ugly shoe, and turned it into the fashionable, beautiful, expensive footwear it is today.
Crafting authentic Spanish espadrilles is truly an art form. At Handmade, they still use traditional artisan techniques, the shoes are handmade in the boutique workshop with all-natural jute.
"What makes this experience special and different from other Airbnb Online Experiences is that you can actually design an espadrilles, and own a pair," says Luis. He says his team will make the design there in Barcelona and ship the shoes to our home in a few weeks!
All we have to do is tell Luis and Kathe the design that we have in mind. They have already given us the link on how to pick the design in advance, in which we will be able to customise the textile, ribbons, colours, height and finishing. We can also check out their custom-made shoes on Instagram
@barcelonahandmade.
To design our own, we will first pick the base, either the flat Dali (which is the classic), or upgrade for an additional €30 with the choice of Flat Wedge (made with two ropes height), the traditional Spanish heel Valencia (with five ropes) and the highest heel, which is the 7.6cm-high Portbou (with seven ropes) for a more elegant, fancy and sexy look.
Next, we choose the canvas for the top part, and then the style of stitching. There are few styles available, such as the Classic, Pamplona and Galicia.
Before we finish off with the choice of charms, we pick the ribbon colours. There are thousands of colours to choose from. And the type of ribbon fabric, like cotton, satin, gossamer as well as special edit, which is the patterned ribbons.
The session takes only an hour. Before we say goodbye to each other, Luis and Kathe show us a few ways to tie the shoes in the traditional style. They also give us the links that show the steps as a reference once we receive our shoes.
To make sure we receive the premium Espadrilles that we have designed, Luis and Kathe have given us the link through the message on the Airbnb app. All we have to do is click on the link that will lead us to their website, register and wait for our parcel to be delivered in few weeks' time.
STREET ART TOUR
South America is another continent that I would like to explore one day. There's one country in particular that has been on my bucket list for the longest time — Argentina, the southern part of the continent.
Wanting to get a glimpse of the country that's famous for football, tango and its vibrant capital, I head to Airbnb once more and search for any interesting 'Online Experiences' that I could join. The "Discover Buenos Aires' Street Art and Sketch" really catches my eye. It offers a great combination of what I love — city and art.
The host, Flor, who is an art curator and artist, will be taking her virtual guests to the lively streets of Buenos Aires to show some of the colourful murals located around the city.
Our session with Flor kicks off with a brief introduction to the city of Buenos Aires, which is situated in the middle of the country. She then shows us an interactive presentation that lets us view some of the popular street arts in the city and play a game to test our knowledge about the art.
The first question is "who do you think is the football player in the mural?" showing Carlos Tevez (the second most famous football player in Argentina) with Boca Junior painted by Martin Ron, a street artist. She says since football is a popular topic in Argentina, there are many street arts that are related to football, including this famous one located in La Boca.
Another thing Argentina is famous for is the tango, a traditional dance originating in Buenos Aires during the late 19th century. Flor then shows us a mural artwork showing a tango dance by Juli Casas located in the neighbourhood of Palermo, the art and design hub of the capital.
And according to Flor, Palermo and La Boca have the most amount of street art. These street arts are made legally and supported by the government and the locals.
She then shows us a short video about Martin Ron, and his works around Buenos Aires, which also shows two of his biggest projects, completed just recently.
These two large murals are in the neighbourhood of Banfield, displaying an image of a boy playing with a heart balloon on one building and a girl stacking up Legos while floating on a heart balloon on the other building.
The mural of the girl is the highest at 65m in height (equivalent to 20 floors) and it took him one and a half months to complete. Meanwhile, the mural of the boy, which is 50m tall, took him a month.
I wonder how he completed such a complicated project in a short time. Flor explains that the 39-year-old Martin, who started painting when he was only 10 years old, uses a unique technique to paint on big walls.
He uses latex paint, brushes, rollers — all typical materials used to paint outdoors. While most artists use grid techniques to transfer their artwork to the walls, Martin will draw random graffiti with spray paint on the walls first instead of square grids.
Then, he will take a photo of the graffiti on the building and transfer it into his computer. The doodle is then placed on top of his design, in which each of the doodles are used as coordinates to create the outline.
The people that he paints are regular people. In this case, the boy and girl in the two murals are the son and daughter of his friends.
He starts his design by taking photos of the children while they play, using the photo as a base. This is known as the hyperrealistic or photorealistic technique.
Another technique he uses is Trompe l'oeil, which uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects are three-dimensional. This is done by painting shadows and playing with colour shadings to produce light and dark areas in paintings.
The first 45 minutes of the session covers the virtual tour of Buenos Aires, the first creative city chosen by Unesco back in 2005. We have visited four neighbourhoods, mainly Palermo, La Boca, Puerto Madero and Banfield.
In the last part of the one-hour session, we have a short drawing exercise to create our own art inspired by the amazing street art that we have seen.
For this, we need a sheet of paper, pencil, and art supplies like colour pencils, highlighters and black marker. It doesn't matter if we can't draw as Flor will guide us step by step,
The steps are quite simple to follow and the activity is really fun and relaxing.