About Casa Planas
Introduction
Spread across 2400m2, Casa Planas encompasses 17 artist studios, an events hall, exhibition spaces, coworking facilities, and Europe's largest photographic archive devoted to mass tourism.
The Casa Planas Centre for Research and Contemporary Culture serves as a dynamic platform for experimentation, research, and creativity. It aims to revive the former Casa Planas photographic processing factory, reclaiming the industrial heritage of Palma as a focal point for contemporary image creation.
This project emerged from a desire to establish creative spaces within the city, promoting the concept of art as a catalyst for social innovation, environmental awareness, and heritage preservation.
Mission
La misión de Casa Planas es:
The mission of Casa Planas is to consolidate and promote a Centre for Relational Contemporary Creation. It is a cultural space dedicated to the interpretation of tourism, based on its documentary collection which houses more than 3 million photographs depicting the beginnings of mass tourism.
Objectives
- Build a diverse and international community that enriches conversations around art, creativity, and critical thinking.
- Organise talks, workshops, exhibitions, labs, and gatherings for professionals in culture and knowledge.
- Manage a scholarship programme for artistic research linked to the Planas Archive.
- Promote creation and study related to tourism and contemporary thought.
- Publicise the Casa Planas project as a social and collective sculpture.
Team
Marina Planas
DIRECTOR OF CASA PLANAS, RESEARCHER,
AND VISUAL ARTIST.
MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media at the School of Visual Arts in New York and BA in Audiovisual Communication at the Ramon Llull University in Barcelona. Marina Planas is the director of Casa Planas Centre for Contemporary Creation and Research. She initiated the Uncovering Archive project, which focuses on contemporary photography and artistic creation, through residencies at the centre. Her photographic and conceptual projects extend beyond conventional visual arts creations, interpreting the role of the creator not only as an artist but also as a curator, collector, and provocateur of contexts.
Since 2015, she has been overseeing one of the world's largest photographic archives dedicated to tourism and developing her artistic practice. The Casa Planas archive, containing over 3,000,000 images, is situated in Mallorca. The Balearic Islands are a pivotal location in the development of the tourism industry, due to the fact that its model has been replicated internationally (Caribbean, Asia). Marina’s work focuses on the generation of fiction and desire through the utopian lens of tourism while at the same time offering a contemporary interpretation of images addressing the crisis caused by the exploitation of “touristified” territories.
Aleli Mirelman
PROJECT DIRECTOR.
Aleli holds a Masters degree in Analysis and Management of Contemporary Art from the Universitat de Barcelona and qualifications in Cultural Events from the Massachusetts School of Arts in Boston, and Fine Arts from the Universitat de Barcelona. She is specialised in cultural dynamics that promote social improvement in a transdisciplinary manner.
Director of projects covering transversal art genealogy, third wave feminism, environmental sustainability, research, archival theories and critical thinking.
Begoña Márquez
RESIDENCY COORDINATOR
Begoña holds a degree in Anglo-Germanic Philology from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. She has lived and worked in the United States and China. Accustomed to navigating international environments and adept in administrative and team management, she enjoys the multicultural and multidisciplinary atmosphere of Casa Planas.
Sofía Borrás
Artistic coordination by Marina Planas Studio
Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of Barcelona; Economics degree from Nottingham Trent University. She has found her passion in artistic and cultural management with a focus on forging links between the creative community and the general public. After years of working in the management of various exhibition spaces, she joined the Casa Planas project in mid-2025 as artistic coordinator of Marina Planas Studio.
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