VAPORES / 2025
Artistic Production incubator and River Sociocultural Ecosystems Observatory
Artistic and research production Residency - river Monnegre (Alicante and El Campello)
IDENSITAT + Centro Cultural Las Cigarreras + Casa de la cultura de El Campello
Idensitat, the Centro Cultural Las Cigarreras in Alicante, and the Casa de Cultura -Ayuntamiento in El Campello, with the collaboration of the Centro d'Arte e Natura di Civitella di Licenza - L'Aquila Reale are pleased to announce the programme VAPORES, which combines artistic research residencies, located artistic interventions and mediation activities. VAPORES will be realised in three specific contexts: Alicante - El Campello, Llobregat river and Licenza (Rome). These three towns have this in common: each has a river which runs through its boundaries; Monnegre River in Alicante and El Campello, Aniene River in Licenza and Llobregat River.
INDEX
INTRODUCTION
OPEN CALL
WORK CONTEXT ON THE MONNEGRE RIVER: ARTISTIC RESIDENCY AND EDUCATIONAL CENTERS
PROJECT IN RESIDENCY
RESIDENCY IN LICENZA (ROME)
INTRODUCTION
VAPORES is an artistic production programme which operates through three strands. The first is defined by the Artistic Production Incubator, creating opportunities for two onsite artists’ residencies in Alicante - El Campello and Licenza to produce projects linked to their respective local rivers.
The second strand, The Observatory, refers to a public programme located in the Llobregat River, consisting of artistic workshops open to public participation, and the deployment of ephemeral art interventions in the river area.
The third strand, will define a Socio-Cultural Ecosystem by means of connecting the programme within the local contexts, facilitating citizen involvement through outreach and mediation practices directed to other sociocultural actors, social organisations, or schools and informal education spaces.
As a common theme among the three strands of the programme, the prospective projects must focus on rivers as a common good, as a space of relationship and interdependence between agents inhabiting their surroundings, thus presenting an alternative vision of other possible scenarios for commonality.
WORK CONTEXT ON THE MONNEGRE RIVER: ARTISTIC RESIDENCY AND EDUCATIONAL CENTERS
The proposed working area in Alicante is the Monnegre River, to develop an artistic and research production residency supported by the Centro Cultural Las Cigarreras and the Casa de Cultura de El Campello. The Monnegre River is a special environment, given that, unlike the Llobregat and the Aniene, it does not always have water running along its course, as it is a seasonal river. Its fluvial intermittency is essential to its biodiversity.
The aim of the residency is to produce research and artwork from May until June 2025 in the area of the Monnegre River. The results will be presented publicly in the exhibition hall at the Casa de Cultura in El Campello. The residency is conceived in two phases, where the last three weeks of June the exhibition hall will be open and the project can continue to intervene there if necessary, having to propose at least one public action related to the production or activation of the project during the weeks in which the hall is open. Idensitat will support the artist through local mediation.
Parallel to the residency, Idensitat, in collaboration with the culture and education departments of El Campello, will organise various outreach activities in schools and informal educational spaces, establishing The Socio-cultural Ecosystem, through which to explore the Monnegre River using artistic strategies. This located mediation opens up another way of relating to the river, encouraging possible cross-connections between the artist residency and the educational environment.
A Texture Map of Monnegre River, by Beatriz Freire, is a sensory mapping of the Monnegre River, focusing on its visible and invisible textures. Inspired by Annea Lockwood’s A Sound Map of the Hudson River, the project does not attempt a conventional cartography, but rather a poetic and material exploration of the river landscape. Through techniques such as photography, video, frottage, or the collection of materials, the project translates trace elements of the river such as: stones, sediments, vegetation, and evidence of water flow into graphic patterns and textile notations. In addition to the visual aspect, the project emphasises soundscapes, captured using a recorder, a contact microphone, and a hydrophone. These recordings will be analysed with spectrographic software and converted into graphics which, in turn, will be translated into textile structure codes. The aim is to generate a sensory archive which creates a bridge between sound, image, and matter, proposing new ways of reading and inhabiting the environment, decolonising the senses, and opening up new forms of perception.
From 9th to 29th of June, the exhibition hall of the Casa de Cultura in El Campello will host an exhibition of the processes and results from the VAPORES project, as well as a series of activities with schools and the artist in residence.
Bio
Beatriz Freire (Portugal) is a visual and textile artist who explores the convergence between the textile and filmic worlds, integrating materials and processes from both fields, as well as using textile codes and notations as an alternative form of communication. Her approach transcends the traditional uses of weaving, transforming it into a medium for interpreting the world. Her works have been selected for festivals such as ISEA 2025 (Seoul), SEMINCI, (S8) Mostra Internacional de Cinema Periférico, Festival Proyector, Jóvenes Realizadores de Granada, Doc's Kingdom. She is a graduate of the Master LAV, Laboratorio Audiovisual de Creación y Práctica Contemporánea (Madrid).
Artistic projects by students of Biology Class and Artistic Expression Class (IES Enric Valor), and Interdisciplinary Project (IES El Clot de l'Illot).
Between April and May, a series of artistic mediation processes were carried out both inside and outside the classroom. During these months, students explored various artistic techniques and languages; painting, printing, photography and video, archiving, soundscaping or writing, with the aim of encouraging a creative and attentive examination of the river environment, drawing students closer to contemporary practices which touch upon nature, social space, and art.
The experience shared by Beatriz Freire, the teachers, and students of the high schools, has produced interactions and connections between both lines of work, resulting in various ideas in common with Monnegre River at the centre of artistic mediation processes, enabling a dialogue between the educational context and artistic practices.
The 4th year secondary students in IES Enric Valor’s Artistic Expression class participated in the Vapores project with the Monnegre River as the centre of their artistic production. Inspired by Alicante artist Juana Francés, the students chose to use the language of material informalism, and gesturality as their technique, with which they applied gouache and non-pictorial elements such as earth, sand, and other materials from the river landscape. They studied the ground and this changes the compositional process by treating the surface from an overhead and horizontal points of view. These canvases are in dialogue with the project in residence, A Texture Map of Monnegre River, as they incorporate meshes made of hemp yarn. This plant, moreover, converges with the ancient tradition of hemp spinning in the artisanal factory La Senda in El Campello, connecting various generations through contemporary artistic works.
The 1st year of Secondary School students from IES Enric Valor made a botanical catalogue with the description of some of the plant species which grow along the banks of the river Monnegre. Some of them have been chosen because they are endemic and form part of the Valencian Catalogue of Endangered Flora Species. Others, on the other hand, are locally abundant and are representative of the limestone and gypsum soils over which the river flows. In addition, the students made use of coffee to print a plant (baladilla) on white paper, then retouched the result with coloured pencils, a process related to concepts studied in the artistic expression class.
The plants described in the catalogue are:
- Endemic plants: Vella lucentina, Sideritis leucantha, and Thymus moroderi.
- Species typical of sub-arid scrubland: Astragalus hispanicus, and Anthyllis terniflora.
- Typical gypsum species: Teucrium libanitis, Helianthemum squamatum, and Ononis tridentata.
- Riparian species: Nerium oleander, and Tamarix canariensis.
The 4th year Secondary school students from the Interdisciplinary Projects course at IES El Clot de l'Illot have created a piece of concrete music based on the sounds of the Monnegre River, and an audiovisual patchwork with visual textures collected in the same place. In these projects, the river is explored through direct experience, transforming its sounds and forms into artistic language, bringing students closer to contemporary practices which connect nature and art. During one of the walks which form part of the interdisciplinary project, the students searched for natural textures, as well as those arising from human activity. Using these textures, they created an art installation as an action of ecological awareness with the aim of encouraging a creative and attentive examination of the river environment.
Participants:
Beatriz Freire (artist in residence), Nacho Pascual Moltó and Laura Cuenca Rodríguez (IES El Clot de l’Illot), Tatiana Trillo García, Ana Delia Gisbert Climent and Santiago González Torregrosa (IES Enric Valor), Dorian Gomis, Miriam Gilabert and María Jesús García Navarro (Concejalías de Cultura y Educación El Campello, Casa de Cultura El Campello), Carolina Fuentes Mascarell (Centro Cultural Las Cigarreras de Alicante), Albert Gironès, Ramon Parramon and Roser Colomar (IDENSITAT).
Students of Biology Class and Artistic Expression Class (IES Enric Valor), and Interdisciplinary Project (IES El Clot de l'Illot):
Adriana Selsig Ibáñez, Álvaro Masegosa Ferrando, Hareem N Nadeem, Nerea Bascuñana Sánchez, Roberto Selsig Ibáñez , Teresa Lizón Gómez, Ainara Naomi Flores Saigua, Andrea Hevia Sánchez, Bernardita Favre Carbajo, Carolina Rodríguez Delgado, Cristian Lledó Picazo, Daniel Armengol Sanchez, Daniel Colado Morales, Daria Dudchenko, Delfina Labella, Eduardo Hevia Sánchez, Elsa Martínez Sellés, Eneko Mateos Andrés, Esther Fernández Moreno, Eva Daniela Torrins Colmenárez, Guillermo Planelles Cañadas, Guiomar Valero Avilló, Hugo Marco Ramos, Josue Ortuño Sanchez, Julia Andreo Hernández, Lucas Nahuel Fruto L., Marcos Cañibano, Cortés, Martín Pastor Beltrán, Nikita Altunin, Nora Fernández Blanco, Nuria Ferrer Rubio, Pablo Valero García, Raquel Lillo Fernández, Reinis Roberts Nececkis, Samuel Flores Llacsahuanga, Sara Kocak Alcaraz.
RESIDENCY IN LICENZA (ROME)
CONTEXT OF RESIDENCY
L'Aquila Reale Centro d'Arte e Natura di Civitella di Licenza is an artistic collective, cultural association, and self-managed cultural centre with a broad network of territorial synergies. It is located in the town of Licenza, in the Aniene Valley, province of Rome, Italy. It is oriented towards artistic research and experimentation, cultural exchange, learning, critical reflection, and the dissemination of local practices and knowledge, with a mission which includes involvement in the community, regeneration of public space, and the restructuring of the languages of art and science.
The Alfa Feito artistic research residency is part of the Festival LaValle project: residency programmes conceived and promoted by the Associazione Collettivo L'Aquila Reale in collaboration with Idensitat. It is supported by the Culture Moves Europe programme of Creative Europe, managed by the Goethe-Institut, in collaboration with the Lucretili Mountains Regional Natural Park, and the Generalitat de Catalunya.
L’aquila reale by Alba Feito
Between September 2024 and January 2025, artist Alba Feito held a residency at the Centro L'Aquila Reale.
During the residency, she developed her research and artwork based on an examination of the reciprocal relationships between the human and the non-human, using the golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), typical of the area, as a central symbol in her artwork. This symbol, often linked to imperialist and patriarchal narratives which exalt strength and sovereignty, is radically reinterpreted by Alba. Through ceramics and drawing, she subverts the traditional representation, transforming it into a symbol of interdependence and tenderness. Following Donna Haraway's call to "be with the problem," she deconstructs established meanings by imagining new cultural and ecological relationships.
Her process with ceramics and drawing is a transformative approach in which the material conveys ecological and social messages. Her practice challenges anthropocentrism, proposing a broader reflection upon the coexistence of life forms. With ceramics, Alba tells stories which are not only personal but also collective, linked to communities and territories, aligning herself with the thinking of authors such as Haraway, who invite us to reassess the links between culture and nature in a more equitable and sustainable way.
Studying the graphic forms of Etruscan ceramics, Alba reworks motifs which question the notion of hierarchical power, proposing instead a vision of the eagle as part of a network of interconnections. As Vinciane Despret points out, graphic representations are not mere images, but true acts of mediation which open up possibilities for imagining new forms of existence.
This approach is part of a feminist perspective that rejects the glorification of power and sovereignty as exclusively imperialist attributes. The use of ceramics as the primary medium is not accidental; its plasticity and capacity for transformation through fire represent regeneration and adaptation.
The lines and drawings evoke movement and interdependence, capturing not only the form of the eagle but also its presence as an acting subject in a symbolic and material ecosystem. Alba’s artworks are not simple reproductions of an animal. Rather, they capture the animal’s essence, placing it within a network of relationships which challenges the concept of individuality.
Alba Feito draws upon these forces to deconstruct the symbol of the eagle, reclaiming it as a representation of care and resilience. Her artworks invite us to reconsider our relationship with the natural world, and to consider the need for a balance between human and non-human life forms and inanimate objects.
L’aquila reale
Volar con alas heridas*
sobre los montes tupidos Parco dei Monti Lucretili.
Manos que piensan,
contenedores de agua.
Reciprocidad y conflicto.
Sombras y olivos.
Noroeste.
Encontrarse en noches cerradas.
Bajas cocciones.
Arúspices etruscos analizando el vuelo del aquila reale: mal augurio.
Subir el vuelo, emprender la marcha.
Criar, no criar. Olvido.
Reciprocidad y muerte.
Crias que no vuelan, a la vez crias que maman.
Staying with the trouble**
Poder apoyarse y recostarse
y compartir comida. Comeros.
Acercarse y alejarse.
La historia de las vencidas, de las que se fueron y de las que se van. Huir del imperio.
Noroeste y luego vira a sureste.
Experimentar, buen augurio.
Terracota y oxido de hierro.
Animales humanos y animales no humanos.
[Todas ellas pertenecen a yacimientos de las tumbas de Etruria]
Volar con alas antiguas,
suave y con respeto,
volar lejos.
Escuchar la intuición.
* Título de una conferencia de Wajdi Mouawad en Barcelona en 2024.
** Título del libro de la teórica ecofeminista Donna J. Haraway
Bio
Alba Feito is a visual artist and cultural worker interested in the relationships between the body and the community. She moved from Asturias to Barcelona in 2007 to study Fine Arts and later completed a Master's degree in Contemporary Philosophy. Her practice focuses on drawing and ceramics. She explores languages that involve gesture, the body, and the observation of the invisible forces that influence them. For years, she has worked on and drawn inspiration from multidisciplinary collective projects, which has led her to understand artistic practice as a process of knowledge exchange. She has participated in the following exhibitions: ‘El desig és una línia que no acaba’ (La Panera, 2023), ‘La nit del cos’ (Bombon project, 2019), ‘Herselves’ (Blue project foundation, 2016), ‘Polítiques del sol’ (Centre d'art Maristany, 2019), ‘Páginas Amigas’ (LasNaves, 2019), and ‘Hacer Hueco’ (CSO 2015). He has taught drawing workshops at Tabakalera (Donosti), MACBA (Barcelona), and Las Naves (Valencia).
