Vítol. Laboratori per a *pensar la festa / February - july 2022
Cúmul + Idensitat. / TRANSVERSAL AESTHETICS / IMMUNITY ～ COMMUNITY
Vítol. Laboratory to Redefine a Fest (as social event) February- July 2022
Cúmul + Idensitat. / TRANSVERSAL AESTHETICS / IMMUNITY ～ COMMUNITY.
The video "Laboratory to Redefine a Fest (as social event)" and the publication "Booklet about Fests to Redefine a Fest (as social event)", arise from the work process of the laboratory "Vítol: Laboratory to Redefine a Fest (as social event)", inaugurated in February 2022 by Cúmul (Castelló) and Idensitat as part of the Idensitat project Transversal Aesthetics / Community ～ Immunity in partnership with the Consorci de Museus de la Comunitat Valenciana.
With this process of research and activity several of the elements that spring readily to mind when considering the meaning of festive events, have been brought into a dialogue; the public’s relationship to these events through time, the shared and inherited experiences, the possible -- or the possibility -- of politicisation of the festive event, or the need to open up new and contemporary spaces for its resignification.
Alluding to the video’s title regarding the need to open up spaces to redefine a festive event, this final activity also gestures towards the usual closing event at the end of the official celebration of La Magdalena in Castelló, during which the crowds in the town square respond by calling out "Vítol!" (in archaic Valencian, long live!) to the cry of Magdalena!, beginning a series of visual projections on the facade of the Cathedral that refer to recent events during the popular festivities, functioning as a meta-act that recalls the past few days, and as a kind of present memory.
Therefore, if, during the Madgalena celebrations, the projection takes place at the city's Cathedral, then in a laboratory of contemporary art, it will take place at the Museum; establishing a dialogue between both institutions that connects the popular and the artistic.
After 6 months of the laboratory, both the audiovisual artwork, and its companion publication, do not come with answers or conclusions, but rather with reflections and feelings about this shared experience.