Ethel Baraona Pohl (they/them). Critic, writer and curator. Co-founder of the independent research studio and publishing house dpr-barcelona, which operates in the fields of architecture, political theory and the social milieu. Their curatorial practice includes «Adhocracy ATHENS» (curated with César Reyes and Pelin Tan for the Onassis Cultural Centre, 2015; building upon Joseph Grima’s Adhocracy for the Istanbul Design Biennale 2012), winner of the ADI Culture Award 2016; «Twelve Cautionary Urban Tales» (Matadero Madrid, 2020-21); «Llibres Model» a curated book collection and open library (Model, Barcelona Architectures Festival 2022, 2023). Their writing has been widely published in academic and independent publications such as Harvard Design Magazine, ARQ, e-flux, AA Files and books by Columbia Books for Architecture and the City, Ruby Press, Thames and Hudson, Lars Müller with Trienal de Arquitectura de Lisboa, Arquine. They have been Director of Foros, the architecture lecture series of the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture and have lectured in Montevideo, Tel Aviv, Glasgow, Prague, London, Paris, Brussels, Mexico City, and Kyiv. Ethel is member of the advisory board for the project Superilla (Superblocks) for the Barcelona City Council. Ethel likes to smell books. They don’t like vanilla ice cream… but those grassy notes with a tang of acids with a hint of vanilla and mustiness are irresistible for them. Since a youngster they have been smelling printed pages. Now they are also convinced that networked words have quantum scents and that we all are part of them. And by smelling books and digging from one page to the other, researching on the issue of artistic and urban practices, they has learnt about their political and social impact, and how these kind of practices can be active tools for protest, to create awareness, to enhance dialogue, and more important, how publishing practices can be tools for taking action.