‘Open doors’ session outside the IES Pla de’n Boet
The development of
Zona Intrusa 3
(the project that we “curate” together with Oriol Fontdevila for the Institut Municipal d’Acció Cultural de Mataró) will reach a new turning point this coming Friday, February 26 when the exhibition that we are (still) setting up at the
Espai f
in Mataró opens.
We explain it this way because the exhibition aims to be a workplace to delve into the collective research processes that we have tried to launch with the class groups from the different Mataró institutes participating in the project. Zona Intrusa does not propose that students reflect on contemporary art, but on the ways in which art and culture relate in contemporary times to other structures, contexts, and narratives; especially with the territory, with public spaces, and with the agents who use them or who are involved in their management in one way or another.
The number of graphic and audiovisual documents that have resulted from this process, despite the very limited time we have to work with each group, is considerable (a sample can be seen in the Zona Intrusa gallery on Picasa), and the exhibition should serve to bring them together and organize them in some sense, so that they can form the basis of a publication that will be edited during the time that the exhibition itself lasts.
A notable part of the development of Zona Intrusa are what we have called “extension projects”, which are nothing more than those actions or works that the groups carry out on their own initiative in relation to the contents of Zona Intrusa once the project has passed through their respective institutes. This year, four of the seven participating institutes have launched this type of “extensions”, which represents a considerable increase compared to the previous edition. However, several of these initiatives have returned the discourse and practice of the students to the consideration of an autonomous artistic object that, again, is related to the territory, either allegorically or simply because it is projected or located in public space.
This is something that generates concern and quite a bit of distrust about the possibility of counteracting the limitations with which initiatives with the characteristics of Zona Intrusa start. We believe that this is a substantial question if we consider the time necessary to establish educational actions that are actually processes of research and experimentation within which the autonomy, experience, and knowledge of the students are recognized, and from which a narrative of their ‘worlds of life’ and their ‘horizons of expectations’ results.
It may also be that these are just pre-opening doubts generated by physical and mental stress, but if anyone wants to chat about the topic, the opening may be a good time to do so in a relaxed way. By the way, it’s at 8 PM!