THis is not a museum. Mobile devices lurking.
An expanded conception of a museum

ON the 9th of April, the Spanish Cultural Centre hosted the opening of the touring exhibition This is not a museum; MObile devices lurking. The exhibition is curated by Marti Peran, produced by ACVic (Centre de les Arts Contemporànies de VIC, Barcelona, Spain),  Acció Cultural Espanyola (AC/E) and the CCEMx, and is conceived as a work in progress combining research and education. The touring exhibition originally formed part of Ceci n’est pas une voiture, a joint project between ACVic, Can Xalant, and Idensitat.

Ceci n'est pas une voiture is defined as an exercise in documentation and reflection upon arts projects situated in public space, interacting with the observer by means of mobile devices; “devices” which, beyond being elements in an expanded concept of the museum, constitute an alternative to the traditional exhibition model of the empty box, and in certain cases, as an alternative to the concept of the museum itself.
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In the exhibition the case studies are shown as a catalogue and archive in progress, presenting more than 70 initiatives which reformulate the traditional idea of the museum as an exhibiting device.

With case studies originating from different parts of the world, 13 new local case studies have been brought into the Mexican exhitibion, as well as the presentation from the Research group on art and the environment (GIAIAE) mediator of the exhibition. 4 original Mexican mobile devices also form part of the exhibition.

The mobile devices, called “artefacts” by curator Marti Peran, are objets d'art which travel in search of contact with urban reality, with people, with the everyday. During the three months of the exhibition, a process which Peran calls “activation” may be seen to occur, with the deployment and demonstration of these artefacts in the urban context. As well as the exhibited work, a programme of parallel activities are to be presented, including the activation of the artefacts, workshop and a seminar, distributed among the various participants.

The touring exhibition This is not a museum; Mobile devices lurking, has gone through various phases of development, in which Universitat de Barcelona, el Museu Centre d'Art Reina Sofia, ACVic, Idensitat, ACM/Roulotte, Trànsit i Cercle Artístic Sant Lluc, Slovene Ethnographic Museum, and the Corcoran College of Art and Design have collborated. In Mexico City, Centro Cultural Casa Talavera, Casa Vecina, SOMA, Centre Cultural Universitari Tlatelolco, *GIAIAE, ATEA and el Jardí Botànic de l'Institut de Biologia de la UNAM are participating collaborators.

This is not a museum; Mobile devices lurking is an exhibition is curated by Marti Peran and produced by ACVic Centre d'Arts Contemporànies, in association with AC/E Acción Cultural Española. It forms part of the project Ceci n’est pas une voiture, jointly promoted by ACVic, Can Xalant, and IDENSITAT.

SPACES, TRANSITS AND MOBILE DEVICES.
Workshop carried out by Raumlabor
10-14.10.2011

IDENSITAT, in collaboration with Can Xalant and ACVic Centre d’Arts Contemporànies, launched an open call to participate in the workshop Spaces, Transits and Mobile Devices, led by the collective Raumlabor from Berlin [Andrea Hofmann, Axel Timm, Benjamin Foerster-Baldenius, Francesco Apuzzo, Jan Liesegang, Markus Bader y Matthias Rick].
The Spaces, Transits and Mobile Devices workshop formed part of the project Ceci n'est pas une voiture, curated by Martí Peran, organised in collaboration with Can Xalant. Centre de Creació i Pensament Contemporani de Mataró, ACVic Centre d’Arts Contemporànies and IDENSITAT, and was realised in collaboration with Cercle Artístic Sant Lluc, Ajuntament de Barcelona. Institut de Cultura and CoNCA. The project began as an exercise in documentation and reflection on the construction of mobile artifacts as elements for an expanded concept of, or as an alternative to, the Museum.

October 10-14, 2011

Description of the workshop, by Raumlabor

We are interested in cities as spaces of activity. Urban identity arises primarily/originates from the identification of oneself in relation to the city.

In the past, a gipsy caravan would come to our village every other year with a number of old trailers and a big tent. Travelling all over the country, they always carried the latest inventions from place to place. They brought strange food, spices from far away, the strongest man, a prophet woman and a mirror in which you could see your soul. The people in the village were very excited by their arrival, but also very scared. This nomadic free life somehow questioned our quiet and ordered community to its foundations. After three or four weeks, when the Caravan left, there was always someone missing from the village, and quite a few others had difficulties in returning to their everyday routine.

We wanted to approach the idea of a mobile museum in a somewhat similar way. What obstacles might we face in travelling from site to site in these days? What was the role of collectivity in our ‘post-everything’ society? What should happen in a mobile museum, transporting content and meaning from one place to another? How could we question our everyday routines? What could be that mirror in which we see ourselves at our best potential? What kind of art could be exhibited in a mobile museum?

The mobile museum we aimed to design consists of single mobile structures. Each structure would function independently but in combination with, and in relation to, the others, creating a new kind of museum and possibilities for a temporary redefinition of public space. In the workshop we created a 1:5 model and drawings of this new museum. The participants formed different groups, each of which developed one mobile unit which could work independently and also be combined as the mobile museum. The results were exhibited at the exhibition Esto no es un museo. Artefactos móbiles al acecho (this is not a museum, mobile devices lurking), (October 2011 to January 2012).

Camping, caravanning, architecturing
By Miquel Ollé and Sofia Mataix

In December 2010,Idensitat, in collaboration with ACVic. Centre d'Arts Contemporànies, Can Xalant, and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, launched an open call for two projects in residence. Part of the project Ceci n'est pas une voiture, the open call consisted of the development of projects in ACVic (Vic) and in Can Xalant (Mataró). Applicants were invited to send proposals, on the condition that they made use of the mobile devices (iD's Mobile Device for Vic and Can Xalant's CXR for Mataró). The selected project for the Mataró residency was Camping, caravanning, architecturing, by Miquel Oller and Sofia Mataix. The proposal for this project was an empirical and human documentation and analysis of the different architectures created in campsites, where each user designs, constructs and customises space according to his or her needs, considering leisure, recreational and social activities as primary functions.

The original idea was that spaces condition and modify human behaviour, but in this case, behaviour changes space, according to each user's needs. The nomadic user thus becomes the sedentary architect and designer of a flexible, cheap and self-managed alternative architecture. The proximity of the camping lots, the open character of the dwellings and the relaxed attitude of its inhabitants encourage social relations between neighbours. Actions which in everyday life are performed in privacy, turn into public and shared events (eating, sleeping, personal grooming, etc.)

In the first phase of the project, the CX-R worked as a laboratory of collection and management of data. For 30 days between July and August 2011, Can Xalant's mobile device drove 2.974 km, visiting 15 camping sites on the Mediterranean coast. From Costa Brava to Cabo de Gata. 153 people wanted to explain how "they made it", what does "architecturing" mean. In a second stage of the project, these collected data ended up in a documentary.

This was a residential project by MAKEA as part of iD Ceci n'est pas une voiture, produced in collaboration withACVic, Idensitat, Can Xalant and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. It was selected in an open call by Idensitat with a second residence in Mataró, in collaboration with Can Xalant. One of the conditions of the competition was to use Idensitat's Mobile Device at Vic and the CXR at Can Xalant in Mataro. SPOT, a project of the collective MAKEA, was carried out between June 2011 and September 2011. MAKEA works in the field of recycling, reusing of objects and unused materials, which are transformed, redesigned, and repurposed in construction workshops. Workshops were held during September 2011, with the involvement of local groups .

SPOT (Public service for optimising refuse) was a project questioning the present throwaway culture, consumerism as a means to well-being or happiness, disposable, low quality objects with built-in obsolescence, without taking into account resource depletion or waste accumulation.

SPOT is a community repair and re-use service working to change this trend. The service underlined the idea that a new object is not always better than an old one, which might have a longer shelf life than we think if the necessary tools to take advantage of it and transform it are put into the people's hands . The Idensitat's Touring device [DI] became an itinerant workshop for SPOT, which travelled through the streets of Vic during the first half of September 2011, offering free advice and assistance in the repair, reuse and creative transformation of objects. There was also advice on the use of tools. The project provided a focal point for the creation of spaces where people may go to repair broken or damaged items, with communal facilities and professional guidance on repair techniques, DIY, carpentry, upholstery, sewing, etc.. and where the work could be evaluated at the end on its viability, and passed if it was fit for purpose.

SPOT combines aspects of a DIY shop with a meeting point for exchange of knowledge, ideas and techniques, a space for creation and debate on environmental policies, rational consumption, reuse, a place for considering alternatives and new ways. It's the aim of organising a residence in the city of Vic, in collaboration with ACVIC. More info: www.makeatuvida.net/spot

Between December 2010 and May 2011, within the framework of the project Ceci n’est pas une voiture. Idensitat, CanXalant. Centre de Creació i Pensament Contemporani de Mataró and ACVic Centre d’Arts Contemporànies, launched an open call for projects of intervention in the public spaces of Mataró and Vic. The open call received 108 proposals from 61 cities.


Selected projects were developed in the towns of Vic, in collaboration with ACVic, and Mataró, in collaboration with Can Xalant.

Vic
Servicio Público de Reutilización de Trastos (S.P.O.T.). [MAKEAtuvida. Associació Cultural de Reutilitzación Creativa] Facing the current trend of using and throwing away objects, consuming as a road to wellbeing and happiness, S.P.O.T proposed the simulation of an institutional campaign, with the idea that a new object is not always better then an old one which can be used for much more time then we think. The project proposal consisted of the convertion of the Touring Device into a mobile workshop for the reuse and creative transformation of objects, creating a space where people could go to repair their damaged objects, combining elements of DIY and multimedia with a meeting point for the exchange of knowledge and ideas; a space for creation and debate about environmental policies, rational consumption, reuse; a place to think about alternatives and new ways of doing things.

Mataró
Camping, Caravaning, Arquitecturing. [Miquel Ollé Aguilló, Sofia Mataix Veiga]
The proposal for this project was an empirical and human documentation and analysis of the different architectures created in campsites, where each user designs, constructs and customises space according to his or her needs, considering leisure, recreational and social activities as primary functions. The original idea was that spaces condition and modify human behaviour, but in this case, behaviour changes space, according to each user's needs. The user thus becomes the architect and designer of a flexible, cheap and self-managed alternative architecture. In a first phase, the project proposal consisted of the convertion of the CX-R into a mobile workshop which would travel to 15 campsites for data collection and analysis, later to be edited as a documentary with the collected material. The second part of the project consisted in converting the CX-R into an exhibition space for the presentation of the documentary.

The selection committee was Jesús Carrillo (Director of Departamento de Actividades Públicas del Museo Nacional Centr de Arte Reina Sofía), Pep Dardanyà (director of Can Xalant Centre de Creació i Pensament Contemporani de Mataró), Pilar Bonet (historian, art critic and professor of art and contemporary design at the Universitat de Barcelona), Jordi Canudas (visual artist and professor at the Escola Massana Centre d’Art and Disseny-UAB), Ramon Parramon (director of ACVIC and Idensitat), Martí Peran (curator and professor of theory of Art at the Universitat de Barcelona) and Cristina Riera (cultural manager and responsible of I+D Trànsit Projectes).

ID#6 MATARÓ-VIC / TOURING DEVICES Call for projects of intervention in public space. (1)

Part of the project Ceci n’est pas une voiture; Mobile devices lurking, Idensitat, CanXalant. Centre de Creació i Pensament Contemporani de Mataró and ACVic Centre d’Arts Contemporànies launched in 2011 an open call for ideas to develop two projects of intervention in the public spaces of Mataró and Vic, using their touring devices.

The project Ceci n’est pas une voiture; Mobile devices lurking, originated as an exercise in documentation and reflection upon the construction of mobile devices as elements of an expanded concept of, or perhaps even as an alternative to, the Museum. It was a research project, with the aim of cataloguing and reflecting upon projects circulating within public space which challenge the conventional notion of the Museum, reformulating instead the functions of the exhibition display as a nomadic platform for the encouragement of direct and self-managed participation, the development of social research, and the distribution of education. The project was carried out as a series of activities, each of which was designed as Parking .The project as a whole was a build-up of successive Parkings, carried out throughout 2011 and 2012.

Idensitat's Touring device [DI]
Throughout 2009 and 2010, Idensitat's Touring Device formed part of workshops and seminars as a touring exhibition which conveyed specific activities generated by Idensitat. It took part in the iD Barrio project, and was present at various educational activities and interventions in public space in Calaf ( Hivernacle Cultural space), Prat de Llobregat (Torre Muntadas), Barcelona (La Capella) and Manresa (Passeig Pere III). It aimed to be an exhibition which spreads out from a single location, serving as a transmitter – receiver of data, its very mobility allowing the device to affect specific aspects within its immediate location. The TOuring device was a way of demonstrating and displaying one of Idensitat’s main objectives, which is to be an itinerant production space, travelling along with the projects it produces, while at the same time generating insights, analysis and proposals for change. In this case it was proposed as a support element to be integrated with projects selected from the open call, and to be modified and adapted according to need. The Touring Device carried additional elements such as a projector, various tables, chairs, projection screens and vertical supports.

Can Xalant's CX-R
CX-R is an adapted mobile caravan, allowing the centre to spread out across the public arena, to establish collaborations in its immediate surroundings, and to expand its scope of action and repercussion. CX-R was designed and produced in 2009 by Argentinian architects a77 (Gustavo Diéguez y Lucas Gilardi) and Catalan architect Pau Faus as the result of a workshop aiming for the collective construction of infrastructure for the centre's courtyard, through the development of a network of institutions and people in the immediate environment. The laboratory was conceived as a process of physical construction, but also as a platform for social interaction to set out a programme. wecanxalant.blogspot.com
Since its opening, CX-R has been requested for different uses: artistic-educational interventions in schools, district festivals, as a stage for performances, artistic interventions, among others. CX-R was capable of modification according to the needs of each application and project.

Project description Ceci n’est pas une voiture.

Collaborative project by: Idensitat. www.idensitat.net / Can Xalant Centre de Creació i Pensament Contemporani de Mataró. www.canxalant.org / ACVic Centre d’Arts Contemporànies. www.acvic.org

Curator: Martí Peran

Selection Committee ID#6 Mataró-Vic: Jesús Carrillo, Pep Dardanyà, Pilar Bonet, Jordi Canudas, Martí Peran, Cristina Riera and Ramon Parramon

The project Ceci n’est pas une voiture; Mobile devices lurking, originated as an exercise in documentation and reflection upon the construction of mobile devices as elements of an expanded concept of, or perhaps even as an alternative to, the Museum.
The prospect of subverting the logic of the Museum by building mobile devices has a long tradition. Since Marcel Duchamp’s famous suitcase (Boîte-en-valise, 1941) or Roger Filliou’s hat (Galerie Légitime, 1962), the initiatives to move the aesthetic experience beyond the limits of the museum have multiplied. However, this same tradition of “travelling art” (Isidoro Valcárcel Medina, 1976) has also been the object of a recent co-optation by the conventional Museum. Indeed, in the last decade we have witnessed a proliferation of attempts to expand the perimeter of the traditional Museum with portable structures (the temporary pavilions of the Serpentine Gallery since 2000, the project for the Temporary Guggenheim Tokyo in 2001 or, more eloquent if anything, the recent Chanel Contemporary Art Container by Zaha Hadid in 2008).

Faced with these invasive phenomena, Ceci n’est pas une voiture aimed at reflecting on and documenting those other initiatives which, circulating in public space, collide with these conventional museum prostheses; to the extent that instead of extending the square metres of the museum, they reformulated the functions of the exhibition display as a nomadic platform nurturing direct and self-managed participation, development of social research and dissemination of educational experiences. In other words, if the temporary pavilions of the conventional museum seek to expand the extent and space of presence in order to reinforce the expansion of the museum’s narrative models, the nomadic devices that loom around the museum would be those which, traveling through the same social landscape, experiment with ways of understanding the exhibition cell as a space for reception and creation of plural and critical narratives against the hegemonic model.

Ceci n’est pas une voiture is conceived as a work in progress that combines processes of research, workshops, production and dissemination. With this objective, it is carried out as a series of activities each of which is designed as a Parking episode.