Ciudad ilustrada / Bon Pastor 2023

THE GIANT BOOK OF BON PASTOR
ILLUSTRATED CITY / 2022-2023

The Book of Bon Pastor is too big for library shelves, it is collective because the efforts of many people have been required to fill it with content, it has wheels because it must be read in public spaces, it is not digital because it has been made with many hands, it is unique because it cannot be duplicated, it is illustrated because it speaks with images, it is gigantic but it can still grow bigger.

It has been done by: Biblioteca Bon Pastor, Associació de Veïns i Veïnes de Bon Pastor, Penya Barcelonista Bon Pastor, Dimonis Bon Pasfoc, Banc del Temps de Bon Pastor, Coral Amics del Bon Pastor, Bopart. Espacio de RRRecreación.

This is part part Illustrated City, a project by IDENSITAT with Ramon Parramon, Anna Vilamú, Albert Gironès, Claudio Burguez y Claudia Campos, Irati Irulegui, Clara-Tanit Arqué, Roser Colomar, Anna Recasens, Azucena López, Cerrajería Salvador Ruiz.

Illustrations by Anna Vilamú

PRESENTATION OF THE GIANT BOOK OF BON PASTOR
21.04.2023 Plaça Robert Gerhard, Barcelona

Illustrated City is a project of research and experimentation dealing with limits and connections that brings together creative practices and socio-cultural practices deployed in the local context. It is developed in the context of the Bon Pastor neighbourhood, with invited groups and organisations which joined the project in order to imagine and to work collaboratively in a process of creation and dialogue, culminating in a large-scale book.

The project, which commenced in June 2022, combines processes of exploration, narration and materialisation which, taken together, create learning environments, and allow various boundaries to be crossed; physical, relational, cognitive, disciplinary, emotional, territorial, etc.; and which question concepts around identity, self-referentiality and neighbourhood narratives. The final result, conceived as an illustrated book, reflects the creative process driven by the diversity of people and organisations involved in various active spaces within the neighbourhood.

In this sense, "Exploration" refers to the process of getting to know and involving various groups active in the neighbourhood to generate narratives from their everyday activities, and from the perspective of diversity and difference. The actions that form part of the exploration come together through meetings between Idensitat and each of the participating groups in the project, based on sharing conversations, experiences, photographs and other materials contributed by the people linked to each group.

From "Narration" arises a process of synthesising elements collected during the exploratory phase, and the possibility of generating the discursive element, formed on the basis of the activities carried out by each organisation. In collaboration with various individual participants and participating organisations, shared work spaces are being created, in order to envision possible narratives developed from current reality, memory or also fiction.

Finally, "Materialise" means to build, to create, to shape, to think with our hands. In giving shape to ideas, experiences or inventions requires direct involvement. To give form to this experience, a blank cloth “page” of 200 x 200 cm gathers together elements decided upon during the narration process. The set of textile “pages” will make up the large book, or " Book-Landscape ".

The object can become a public forum, a physical place or a space for lived memories. In short, it is a scenario which is activated and deactivated based on gathering together the identities, desires or activities of the neighbourhood’s organisations, far beyond its territorial limits.

PROCESS
The contents of each organisation’s page, as part of the "Illustrated Book of Bon Pastor", is decided and made with each of the project’s participating groups.

DIMONIS BON PASFOC. Identity must be printed in fire