Alicante - Centro Cultural Las Cigarreras + Area of Architectural Projects, Universidad de Alicante, Escuela Politécnica Superior de Alicante.
ALACANT
Si els peixos parlaren del tardeo. Ona Beneït, Pedro Granero, David Vegara and Carlos Pastor
Centro Cultural Las Cigarreras
October - december 2018
Approach
The artistic project attempts to investigate this ecosystem, examining the twin concepts of sustainability and unsustainability in depth. We will explore the relationship and the tension between the "tardeo" and the Plaza Nueva aquarium, and compare the testimonies and realities of agents involved in this leisure ecosystem with the situation of the aquarium, bringing together concepts such as the following: Aquarium / "tardeo"; Neighbourhood Associations / Animal advocacy associations; Native marine flora and fauna / Community fabric and neighbourhood; Aquarium / Housing / Neighbourhood.
The project has deployed a field research with various agents linked to the world of the "Taredo", such as neighborhood platforms, associations of merchants or institutional workers of tourism and public space. Through interviews and meetings they will work on the creation of a collective cartography, analysis and visibility of tardeo's ecosystem.
PROJECT ACTIONS:
ENROCATS - Intervention in the public space of the “tardeo” zone.
November 17th, 2018
The performance is inspired by the work "Bodies in urban spaces" by artist Willi Dorner, who remembers rock fishes, different species which take gaps in the rock as their habitat: coloured, filling in voids and inhabiting dark spaces to give them colour. In it, the artistic group “Si els peixos parlaren del tardeo”, with the participation of the Municipal School of Theatre, students from the Flow Dance School, and with the collaboration of the Teatre Principal of Alicante, simulates a shoal of fish that crosses the area of tardeo, from the Teatre Principal to the Aquarium of the Plaça Nova (commonly called the FishTank by Alicante residents), through the Castanys and Sant Ildefons streets, in order to claim and "inaugurate" the Aquarium as a "Tardeo Reinterpretation Center", which at the time of the realisation of the performance, now stands empty after the transfer of the last fish. Both the use of the “fishtank”, and the phenomenon of the “tardeo”, have been accompanied by controversy for years.
The work consists of filling urban spaces with bodies, like the rock fish emerging from their holes. The group has decided to turn the fish tank into a Tardeo Interpretation Center, as an ironic and playful way to claim the “plaza” as a place for debating public affairs. Through performance, the project investigates how the physical body relates to the ecosystem of "tardeo": the occupation of and the relationship to public space, the flows of movement, or the dancers' visible impact on the in the daily life of the neighborhood. All in all, it plays with the impact of introducing a strange element into the ecosystem, observing the acceptance or rejection of this element within a living environment. However, this action attempts to reflect upon the use of public space and the urban architecture present in this ecosystem, demonstrating the level of occupation of the public space of the Tardeo.
ENXARXATS – Round Table on the “tardeo”
December 1, 2018
"Enxarxats" is an action that starts with the "Centre d'Interpretació del Tardeo -La Peixera", the artistic project by the group "Si els peixos parlessin del tardeo".
A round table in which the different agents involved attempt a definition or an explanation of the leisure ecosystem, guided by a cartography of the city in which public space may manifest as a meeting point or place of conflict. District residents and hoteliers have been invited to this session, acoompanied by other agents to introduce different perspectives.
The table is formed by an illuminated map of the area, and during the debate several topics were discussed such as housing, sustainability, social impact or city model. The guests took part in this map, which will function as an informative reference of the problems and opinions of the Tardeo phenomena, from the perspective of the hotel industry, sociology, architecture or the neighborhood.
With the participation of: Jose María Torres Nadal, Professor of Architecture Projects at the UA, Alejandro Mantecón, PhD in Sociology from the UA and Master's Degree in Tourism Studies from the IUSC, Nefer Vives Frasquet and Maribel Terol Andrés, neighbors from the central area linked to the Association of Neighbors of the Traditional Center of Alicante, Fernando Tomás Monzó, of the Board of Directors of the Provincial Association of Catering Businessmen of Alicante and Manuel Seijo Bar, owner of several bars in the downtown area.
PRESENTATION OF THE TARDEO INTERPRETATION CENTRE – Peix Bruna itinerary by the area of
“Tardeo" to the Mediterranean Aquarium of Plaça Nova
Registration:
The observation centres are usually cabins completely unrooted from their surroundings, with a narrow strip where visitors may observe with binoculars or take photographs. Using this approach to the observation of an ecosystem, the project involves the construction of a mobile interpretation centre based on the Peix Bruna, a variety of rock fish characteristic of Mediterranean waters, such as those inhabited by the Aquarium Fish Tank of Plaça Nova before it was closed. This tour of “ the fish” proposed by the Collective Peix Bruna, will depart from the Las Cigarreras Cultural Centre, accompanied by an explanatory audio track, as if it were a tourist bus.
Ona Beneït, Pedro Granero, David Vegada and Carles Pastor (Alacant - Palma)
A multidisciplinary group which includes: Ona Beneït, actress, specialist in emergent processes and how these relate to defence of the environment; Pedro Granero, actor, creator and educator; David Vegara, architect and urban sociologist; and Carles Pastor, architect, specialist in architecture and landscape, and a regular collaborator in media, exploring architecture based upon the tension between the everyday and the patrimonial.
Press:
El tardeo llevado al arte, Diario Información, 8-8-2018
IDENSITAT aborda en Alicante el fenómeno del 'tardeo', Cadena Ser 16-11-2018
Performance para reflexionar sobre el tardeo en Alicante, Diario Información, 16-11-2018
Cuando el tardeo se transforma en arte, Diario Información, 17-11-2018
Si los peces hablaran del tardeo: vecinos y hosteleros debaten sobre ecosistemas del ocio, Cultur Plaza 29-11-2018
No hay acuerdo: La 'polimetría' del tardeo evita el consenso en el debate sobre ecosistemas del ocio, Alicante Plaza, 14-12-2018
Pot l'art mediar en un conflicte d'oci? El Mundo, 20 - 12 - 2018
Los peces han hablado: “Nuestra función ha sido dar visibilidad a la incapacidad de las instituciones para dar soluciones, Alicante Plaza, 25-12-2018
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 students of the architectural projects department at the University of Alicante, jointly with the artists in residence presented at the Las Cigarreras Cultural Centre a number of projects, models, and approaches to the contemporary city through concepts and realities touched by contemporary leisure culture in the city of Alicante, and other urban locations.
The abandoned facilities of La Britanica
A group of students worked with lecturer Paco Leiva to examine the abandoned facilities at La Británica, an old refinery hidden in the Molinet, a hill between Benacantil and Serra Grossa d ' Alacant, closed since the 60s. It comprises a series of underground galleries with corridors and a total of 24 constructed domes, more than twenty metres in height, that once held enormous oil deposits. The students entered these facilities and mapped the insides of this great structure with laser photography, presenting a work in progress through a video and a performance.
The Tramway as a timeline.
The group comprising exchange students examined, with lecturer Joaquín Alvado, the genealogy of the landscape and the use of the Tram line, previously known as "el trenet", which runs parallel to the coast from Alicante to Benidorm. They considered other uses relating to memory, landscape, sustainability, or imagination, and how the tram can play another role in the development of the coastline, apart from its continuing role in the tourist landscape since the 1950s.
Challenges of the aerial urban space.
Students from María José Marcos's group addressed the idea of aerial urban planning, observing the aerial layer shaped by the cities skyline, and how this layer may be examined from the perspectives of ecology and sustainability, offering solutions to the problems of the aerial landscapes of megalopoleis around the world, such as pollution or light pollution.
Domestic spaces of utopias of welfare.
Students from Andrés Silanes's project class examined various social utopias, considering the house as a space for relaxation, collective construction and well-being. Students chose a variety of domestic scenarios to apply precepts which are common to most of these systems, picturing the house from the perspective of leisure and pleasure.
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.
