ZOMBIE SPACES #2 | BESÒS-FÒRUM [BCN]
ZOMBIE SPACES #2 | BESÒS-FÒRUM [BCN]
Series of debates and workshop. December 2014-January 2015
Zombie Spaces is a project which analyses, points to and promotes collective proposals in a particular area, which, through the confluence of several complex and often unrelated circumstances, define a contorted landscape.
The process of zombification within a site is caused by a confluence of various elements, such as public and private over-accumulation of interests within the same sites, the overproduction of projects which overlap and engulf each other, and by the life which the site sustains, reorganising itself beyond the hostility of circumstances. The zombie space is defined by ideational fragments which never fully materialised. A zombie space is a place which comes back to life, ill-fitting and disfigured, in spite of numerous attempts to plan it out as an articulated whole. The combination between the logic of speculation, public management dragged along by private interests, the rehashing of poorly adapted models, the paralysis of ongoing works initiated before the crisis, the flux of migration and the emergence of new activities, disconnection from the site's historical processes; these and other elements, specific to each space, turn these areas into places which, designed and built according to these pressures, facilitate the deterioration of social and living conditions. A zombie space is not a dead space, but a space where various ways of disjointed living have been reorganized.
Resurrected by the confluence of multiple projects, many of them unfinished or aborted in favour of other projects, other policies, other economic interests, other external circumstances of an extralocal nature, these zombie spaces trace out coarse urban landscapes which continue to function with disfigurations produced by the combined will of a number of people, or of institutions, to vivify them according to their own images and likenesses.
Idensitat is carrying out this project as an cycle of exploration in urban areas which are undergoing a process of zombification. The project adapts to each site, coming together in several interconnected stages, each of which is open to general public participation, but which may be approached separately. It combines a walking tour, a guided exploration with agents active within the specific context, a screening of prepared audiovisual material, and the development of a workshop in which various people who have analysed the site, or who are carrying out activities related to the project, will take part.
ZOMBIE SPACES
#2 Besòs - Fòrum [BCN]
Series of debates and workshop
December 2014 / January 2015
A series of presentations, and a debate, forming a discussion of the morphology of zombie concepts applicable to space, contrasting these with the processes of transformation which the landscape between the Besòs area and the Barcelona Forum has suffered, from the perspectives of everyday life and the environment .
> Go to the aplication form for debates sessions. Free acces with previous inscription. Places are limited.
What has space got to do with zombies. Zombification and landscape. Besòs - Forum
13.12.2014 from 11am to 1.30pm
Venue: Cercle Artístic Sant Lluc
. Carrer Mercaders, 42, 08003 Barcelona
11.00 - 11.15 Gaspar Maza; anthropologist. Introduction to the concept of Zombie Space
s.
11.15 - 12.15 Jorge Fernández Gonzalo; philosopher. Author of Zombie Philosophy
12.15 - 13.00 Sito Alarcón; biologist. The biological space of the Besòs river and the coastline
13:00 - 13:30 Discussion with Jorge Fernández Gonzalo, Sito Alarcon, Gaspar Maza and Francesc Magrinyà.
Des-living housing. Documenting processes that contribute to the zombification of space.
20.01.2015 from 19.00h to 20.30h
Place: La Negreta. Espai Social del Gòtic. Nou de Sant Francesc 21. 08002 Barcelona
19:00 - 19.45h Screening play of the documentary by Comando Vídeo "SI SE PUEDE. Seven days with BARCELONA PAH." With Pau Faus; artist and architect, and members of the PAH Barcelona-Besòs.
19:45 - 20:00 Ingrid Guardiola; professor, writer and cultural manager.
20:00 - 20:30 Discussion with Pau Faus, members of the PAH Barcelona and Besòs and Ingrid Guardiola moderated by Laia Ramos. Sociologist and coordinator Idensitat.
The Barcelona model, its copies and the zombifying consequences
27.01.2015 from 19.00 to 20.30
Venue: Cercle Artístic Sant Lluc. Mercaders, 42, 08003 Barcelona
19.00 - 19.30 Francesc Muñoz; urban geographer. The appropriate experience.
19:30 - 20:00 Octavi Rofes; anthropologist, deputy director of Eina. The repeated discourse
20:00 - 20:30 Discussion with Francesc Muñoz and Octavi Rofes moderated by Ramon Parramon; artist, director of Idensitat.
Workshop of projects which will make a multidimensional mapping of the zombie space in the area between Besòs and Barcelona Forum
28-30 January 2015, from 11.00h to 14.00h and 16.00h to 19.00h
Venue: HANGAR. C. Emilia Coranty 16. Can Ricart E-08018 Barcelona
> Access to the workshop registration form . Places are limited. Open until 23.01.2015
The workshop consists of exploration and analysis of the landscape from Besòs to the Forum from the perspective of the zombie spaces concept, as well as the development of a multidimensional structure combining data, mapping and representation of the zombie morphology found in the analysed space. This structure will gather together the individual or collective contributions of each participant in the workshop.
The results of this multidimensional mapping could be displayed in an exhibition organized by Idensitat for the next May 2015, in Barcelona.
Direction of the multidimensional mapping workshop. Domènec - Idensitat (Gaspar Maza - Ramon Parramon).
With the participation of:
Francesc Magrinyà; engineer and urban planner. Guided tour along the area between the River Besòs and the Forum.
David Picó, social educator, desdelamina.net
Diana Padrón; art historian. Critic Cartography
Other active agents involved in various districts of this area.
WHO IS IT AIMED AT
Workshop for artists, architects, audivisual producers, anthropologists, urban geographers, sociologists, art historians, and students of these disciplines, as well as anyone interested in the proposed area of study.
Places are limited.
Workshop participants: ALEIX PORTA, BLANCA MACHUCA, CARLOS PAMPLONA, CHIARA DE MARCO, EVA MARÍN PEINADO, IMMA CAMPS, IMMA VALLMITJANA, JOAN VITÒRIA I CODINA, JORDI LAFON, MARC FERNÁNDEZ, MARÍA JIMÉNEZ SEQUEIROS, MARISA PAITUVI, MARTA MORATÓ CONTRERAS, MECHU LOPEZ BRAVO, MIREIA VIDAL, RUBÉN OLIVA, SERGI BERMEJO, JORDI GARET, ANNA RECASENS.
BIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES
Jorge Fernández Gonzalo. Doctor of Hispanic Philology and author of five poetry books for which he has won such awards as the Joaquín Benito de Lucas (Mudo asombro, 2004) and Hiperión of young poetry (Una hoja de almendro, 2004), aomg others. He has published the essays Filosofía zombi (Finalist Anagrama, 2011), La muerte de Acteón (Eutelequia, 2011), Metáforas de la desaparición (Huerga y Fierro, 2014), Pornograffiti, Cuerpo y disidencia (Libros de Itaca, 2014) and his most recent essay Homo Public (Fray Luis de León Award 2014) will soon be published. He has translated works by Rimbaud and Baudelaire, both from the digital publisher Lapsus Calami.
Sito Alarcón Puerto. Manager at the Consorci del Besòs. He has worked in Barcelona Regional, where he directed and coordinated various studies, among them the proposed restoration of the final stretch of the Besòs river, various projects linked to Barcelona Zoo, the remodeling of the coastline bank of the Besòs river, and other works pertaining to urban planning and renewal. He participated in drafting the Plan Territorial de la Región Metropolitana de Barcelona, and previously worked at the Mancomunidad de Municipios del Área Metropolitana de Barcelona, in metropolitan coastal management, and on plans regarding the rivers Llobregat and Besòs.
Íngrid Guardiola. Lecturer in Trends in Contemporary Television (Comunicación Audiovisual, Universitat Pompeu Fabra) and in New Television Formats, Creative Documentary Production and Audiovisual Creation (Comunicación Cultural, Universitat de Girona). Since 2002, she has been coordinator of MINIPUT
Pau Faus. Architect and visual artist. An explorer of everyday urban life, he is mainly interested in autonomous practices within the contemporary city. His work aims to activate mechanisms of representation, narration and/or interaction in order to highlight the particularities and conflicts of wherever he settles down to work. Most of his projects are ‘site specific’, in collaboration with local agents and other professionals such as architects, photographers, anthropologists or visual and performing artists.
SÍ SE PUEDE. Seven Days at Barcelona PAH' produced by Comando Video (52 minutes / Spanish with English Subtitles). The PAH (The Platform for People Affected by Mortgages), it is a citizen’s movement for the right to housing. It emerged in 2009 in Barcelona (Spain) and today has more than 200 nodes across Spain. The PAH offers an alternative outlook on housing policies to the one offered by local and national governments making this social movement a key opponent of their housing policies, which have only impoverished people while continuing to commodify houses.
The documentary ‘SÍ SE PUEDE. Seven days at PAH Barcelona' is an account of the day to day of Barcelona‘s Platform for People Affected by Mortgages. Following various participants it illustrates what a usual week looks like and its tireless activities. This documentary places cameras at the heart of the PAH to visualize, not only the post-housing bubble drama, but also the huge and often invisible work behind this social movement. It shows the process of transformation and empowerment of those who join its ranks.
Francesc Muñoz. Professor of Urban Geography at Universitat Autònoma of Barcelona from 1995 and director of the Urban Planning Observatory, Autonomous University of Barcelona. He is director of the university’s Urban Planning Observatory. A specialist in urban structuring, urban planning and design of territorial strategies, he has participated as an expert adviser to Council of Europe missions in this field. He has also been a guest lecturer at universities in other countries, for example France, Italy and the United Kingdom. He has studied the present-day transformation of urban and metropolitan landscapes and has published texts in France, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia and the United Kingdom,
Octavi Rofes. Anthropologist, Professor of Art, Design and Society and Design of Identity Elements at Eina, University School of Design and Art. He has performed ethnographic research in local cultural production, and has recently become involved in analysing creative processes among networks of interpersonal relationships.
Domènec. Visual artist. Taking conceptual processes of reflection as his point of departure, Domènec has built up a body of sculptural and photographic work, as well as installations and interventions in public space, which take the architectural project as one of the most productive and complex imaginary constructions in the modern tradition. He has taken part in several in situ projects and international public art projects in Ireland, Mexico, Belgium, France, Italy, USA, Brazil, Argentine, Finland, Slovenia, Israel and Palestine.
Francesc Magrinyà. Civil Engineer at the UPC and Doctor of Urbanism at the ENPC Paris I. He was head of mobility department at the Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona. He is an expert in participatory urban planning processes, and a teacher in several UPC Masters degree courses and Doctorates in Sustainability and Transport Infrastructure Engineering. He is the research coordinator of the EXIT-UPC group (Engineering, Networks, Infrastructure and Transport), and is head of the Department of Urban Services GRECDH-UPC (Research Group on Cooperation and Human Development), as well as Coordinator of the Intrascapelab Collective.
David Picó. Educator and facilitator for projects in social education and ICT in Unión Group at La Mina for over 12 years. He focuses his work on the understanding that processes of appropriation by people of ICTs are essential for the (re) construction of social spaces. (desdelamina.org)
Diana Padrón. Graduated in Art History and Master in Advanced Studies in Art History at the University of Barcelona. She has led conferences at the University of Barcelona, Escola EINA, Arts Santa Monica, University of Vic and Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Wien. She collaborates with such contemporary art journals as SalonKritik, Interactive, A*Desk and REG|AC (Journal of Global Studies and Contemporary Art). She also works as an independent curator. Since 2011, she completed a research residency at the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) about the Cartographic Impulse in the MACBA Collection, and has been developing her PhD project about the practice of cartography in contemporary art. Currently she is coordinator at the postgraduate seminar On Mediation, Theory and curatorial practices in Global Art, organised by the Art Globalisation Interculturality research group, University of Barcelona.
Zombie Spaces #02 is part of the ARTIZEN - European Initiative for Art and Citizen project, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union
In collaboration with: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Cultura; Ajuntament de Barcelona; Hangar; Cercle Artístic de Sant LLuc, La Negreta.