Residents of the small houses built directly on the Babilonia beach in Guardamar del Segura, in the South of the Costa Blanca, were forced to construct makeshift seawalls in front of their doors to protect their homes from rising water levels, caused by the construction of a jetty further away. In Alicante, a little further North, the Vistamar residential building stands so close to the beach that, from a distance, this 39-story brick and concrete tower seems to rise straight out of the Mediterranean. On some windows, the word "SOS" is visible, as increasingly violent storms fueled by climate change threaten the entire Albufereta neighborhood, which was built in the 1960s at the dawn of Spain's tourism boom.

In Valencia, the Formula 1 circuit – inaugurated in 2008 and intended to bring international fame to the city – has turned into an abandoned expanse of concrete, now partially home to a shantytown where bored young people play with toy cars. As for the Ciudad Quesada housing development in Rojales, with its bright green golf course planted in a semi-desert landscape, it still advertises to foreign investors a "Spanish life for sale," despite its ghost town appearance.

For his series La idea de éxito ("The idea of success"), Spanish photographer and filmmaker Markel Redondo traveled across the region of Valencia from 2020 to 2021, reflecting on the meaning of these depressed landscapes, which were once seen as symbols of success and progress. "The Costa Blanca may be the region that best embodies the drive in Spain to build more, ever higher, ever bigger. It's a misunderstood idea of progress, one that exploits natural resources as if they were infinite, and which has led to a great deal of corruption and speculation," said the 47-year-old Basque creator, who already explored the relationship between people and urbanized landscapes in Castillos de arena ("Sandcastles").

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