One of the constants in Juan Baraja's work is associated with the training he received in the analog developing laboratory during his studies of Fine Arts and the research on light. In his consideration of photography and architecture, light acquires the condition of constructive material. From this premise, he elaborates the series Hipódromo, made in the first stretch of his professional activity as a photographer in 2014, as well as Águas Livres. His attention is focused here on the rationalist architecture of the Hipódromo de la Zarzuela, nestled in the Zarzuela mountain next to Madrid and built in 1931. The main facility of the Hippodrome is the work of the architects Carlos Arniches Moltó and Martín Domínguez, with the collaboration of the engineer Eduardo Torroja.

The exceptional architectural quality of the complex, especially of its grandstands, declared a Historic Artistic Monument in 1980 and an Asset of Cultural Interest in 2009, is punctuated by the ups and downs of its
management and operation. Promoted after the expropriation of the former Hipódromo de la Castellana in order to build the New Ministries, it is finally the regime of General Francisco Franco who cedes the land and the building, begun almost a decade before, to the Sociedad de Fomento y Cría Caballar de España by means of a decree-law, in 1940. The bankruptcy in 1992 of this company gave rise to successive tenders, closures and re-allotments, until in 2005 it reopened its doors with the management and participation in the administration and infrastructures of Patrimonio Nacional, Hipódromo de la Zarzuela, S.A. and SEPI.

Alfredo Puente, FCAYC