VALENCIA // CASTELLÓN // ALICANTE
IDENSITAT + Consorcio de Museos de la Comunitat Valenciana
2018 - 2019
IDENSITAT and the CONSORCI DE MUSEUS DE LA COMUNITAT VALENCIANA presents Transversal Aesthetics / Leisure Ecosystems, a programme developed in the cities of Valencia, Castelló and Alicante. The project is a collaboration with Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània in Valencia, el Museo de Belles Arts de Castelló, and Las Cigarreras Cultural Center in Alacant. The programme includes three artistic residences, selected by an open call, educational activities, in collaboration with universities, and the articulation of a local node linked to the activation of the artistic projects and educational actions. The whole project takes place between 2018 and 2019.
- Introduction
- Themes
- Methodology
- Work Context
- Selected Projects
- Educational Activities
- Call for projects
INTRODUCTION
Transversal Aesthetics is a platform for experimentation with art, education and social space. A place of confluence between artistic practices as a space for critical research; educational activities as a space for the production of content, interaction and the transfer of learning; and the urban context as a space of connection between specific themes of work and a specific active social space surrounding it. A platform in medium-sized urban spaces, as generators of social, cultural and environmental spaces at the boundaries between rural and urban. The project is based upon the cross-disciplinary dimension of art, in order to connect experiences to activities which impact upon singular elements, based upon common themes and strategies, shared among various participating agents and bodies.
THEMES
The project aims to study Leisure as a driver and generator of specific themes in the regions chosen, based on the concept of leisure as a generator of activities, landscapes, aesthetics and relational spaces. Leisure and its social role form part of a highly integrated and deeply-rooted system of geography, economics and everyday life within these regions, configuring spaces in which usage based upon leisure and free-time activities is increasing. These leisure-related settings create models of landscape, of social relationship and of connection with or rejection of their surroundings, from which arise their own aesthetics, modifying the uses and dynamics which are configured around them. The new visions proposed around this ecosystem will be promoted on the basis of artistic practices, in association with social organisations and spaces for educational action.
METHODOLOGY
The project works in a triangular relationship between the Local Node or participant group, participants associated with Educational Activities, and the temporary Artistic Residencies.
These three strands – node, activities and residency - may cross over, or they may work in unison, or they may coexist in parallel.
The Local Nodes may comprise a number of agents, organisations or individuals interested in participating, or which are associated with social, artistic or research contexts on the theme. Prior to the development of the Artistic Project, the nodes may vary, or may increase in their development. The artist or collective must propose a project on the proposed theme, involving the node, and must add their own agents to the network, which may be more or less involved, depending upon their role within the project’s framework. The Educational Activities follow their own dynamics and develop the theme within their educational programme. Both the Local Nodes and the Educational Actions will be started in advance by Idensitat and the Consorcio de Museos de la Comunidad Valenciana, inviting local groups and individuals from the context who work with artistic practices, social activities and educational spaces related to urban issues, free time, and leisure culture.
Projects selected in the open call must apply the above methodology during the temporary residencies.
WORK CONTEXT
ALICANTE
CASTELLÓN
VALENCIA
Leisure activity arises from the transformation of systems of production and processes of work, and generates energetic forms of consumption in which to invest free time, to shape public spaces, and to modify both the uses and the social relationships which are established as a result of leisure activities. Medium-sized cities near coastal areas enjoy an inherent geo-climatic quality which turns them into mass-tourism destinations where activities, architectures and leisure areas pop up in response to public desires, and the need to consume free time. Together with tradition, popular culture, people, gastronomy, but also concrete policies, urban planning or urban models, these elements amalgamate and contribute to processes of urban transition, with leisure, in this case, as an activating agent and a case study.
In relation to people, leisure forms part of multiple realities, of everyday existences, of quality of life, but also of precariousness, and resistance derived from an industry model which does not generate sustainability, but which is sustained, in many cases, by major events, or by seasonal activities, of use only in summer. Leisure in these contexts also forms part of multiple fictions, understood as idealised visions of urban models, and connected to desires, utopias, revolutions or symbolism. This parallax between reality and fiction which meets in leisure is also constructed from a reaction/relationship to the workplace, since activities related to leisure and consumption which take place there may be understood perfectly as productive practices. In fact, it is often from leisure that the most significant production takes place on social and personal levels, establishing, in many cases, a direct link between productive labour and the consumption of free time. On the other hand, leisure also interferes with the everyday fact of living in a particular place, bringing daily life into contact with the both positive and negative consequences which arise from leisure activities.
Leisure-related settings in Valencia, Castellón and Alicante have generated their own aesthetic universe and their own landscape, configuring a certain geographical vision, and forming part of aesthetic references for several generations. Themed parks, overexposure and thematisation of urban spaces in sports venues or major events, models of tourism based upon the summer season... the kinds of settings in which fictional realities are related, in many ways, to the settings of social realities.
The project will focus on the cultural ecosystems of these three cities in relation to leisure, and aims to deploy projects and processes connected to the city and its everyday life, dealing with Leisure as a specific theme applied to topics, aesthetics, landscapes, zones and spaces for research specific to each context. A model of leisure and the city considered through artistic practices, in association with social organisations and university research spaces. In this sense, the specific work setting in each city (Valencia, Castellón, Alicante) is defined by each project, which must be developed taking into account the agents involved in the Local Node, the Educational Actions, and the theme of Leisure.
ALACANT
Si els peixos parlaren del tardeo. Ona Beneït, Pedro Granero, David Vegada and Carles Pastor
Centro Cultural Las Cigarreras
October - december 2018
Approach
The project deals with the "tardeo", early evening leisure-time spent in bars and terraces which has become popular recently in Alicante, based upon the artistic and discursive potential of the Aquarium located in Alicante’s Plaza Nueva, closed due to its unsustainability, and the deaths of dozens of fish.
MORE INFORMATION OF THE PROJECT
CASTELLÓN
nārang: genealogía de un souvenir / ideadestroyingmuros
Museu de Belles Arts de Castelló
January – March 2019
Approach
the project "nārang: genealogia de un souvenir / nārang: genealogy of a souvenir" tackles an analysis of the souvenir as an exotic object from the valencian region, in this case castellón, which overlaps the spheres of commerce, the tourist industry and leisure culture.
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VALÈNCIA
A cuatro Patas / Nyamnyam
January – March 2019
Approach
Before eating, we build a table; before speaking, we build a table; before celebrating, we build a table; in order to get to know each other, we build a table. The project works in the idea of the table as a vehicular element and as a way of creating a myriad of situations sparing time.
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EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES
The Educational Activities is a part of the project ECOSYSTEMS OF LEISURE, and the results will be presented along with the rest of the activities proposed by the project. They will take place between September 2018 and May 2019, based upon a series of collaborations with different fields of university education and research.
The project will work alongside the Area of Architectural Projects at the Universidad de Alicante, Escuela Politécnica Superior de Alicante. The liaison officer is Ester Gisbert Alemany, a researcher in tourist zones as part of Architectural Projects and Social Anthropology (Universidad de Alicante / University of Aberdeen), and the researches Andrés Silanes, Juan Antonio Sánchez and María José Marcos. Each lecturer in architecture who joins the project will study an element related to Leisure, which will be then be shared among the contributors.
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CASTELLÓN
Degree in Videogame Design, and Master’s Degree course in Psychopedagogy, University Jaume I.
The concept of Leisure will be approached from an educational point of view, thanks to a collaboration with the Master's Degree corse in Psychopedagogy. They will approach the subject of leisure from a public space perspective, working outside the classroom in non-formal spaces, in urban territories, neighbourhoods and cultural centres, considering the figure of the educational psychologist as an agitator and a facilitator in educational issues.
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Work with the Master’s degree course in Artistic Production, and the degree course in Fine Arts, at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia’s Fine Arts Faculty.
Workshop by Idensitat, consisting of an exploration of the urban space which responds to several leisure-related elements, and based upon this field work, the Idensitat workshop will take its subject matter. The teachers Mijo Miquel and Mau Monleón will work in different subjects in the topic of Leisure.
MORE INFORMATION AND RESULTS
BACKGROUND
Trasnversal Aesthetics acts as a HUB for projects linked to small and medium cities, and their cultural venues as well. Peripheral Ecosystems is the common theme deployed in 2017 and proposed by IDENSITAT and Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Huarte; a suite of proposed activities, tending towards work based upon environment-related art. To do this, a call was opened for the selection of an artistic residency in the context of the Arga River. The selected project was "Cuando tu materia deviene desborde" - "When your material spills over" by the artist Francisco Navarrete Sitja In 2017, three other projects have been carried out in the cities of Manresa, Mataró and Vilanova i la Geltrú in Barcelona, under the common theme of how each city relates to the transformation of work spaces. Transversal Aesthetics collaborates with Museu Comarcal de Manresa, MAC Mataró Art Contemporani and Centre d'Art Contemporani La Sala (Vilanova i la Geltrú).
+INFO
With the support of Cultura Resident de la Direcció General de Cultura i Patrimoni de la Generalitat Valenciana througout Consorci de Museus de la Comunitat Valenciana.
