Workshop, Workshop, Workshop!

Barely a month ago, an assortment of collaborative spaces was awarded the prize of the Ciutat de Barcelona, with a special mention from the jury. Amongst others, there were; Fireplace, The Green Parrot, Halfhouse, Homesession, El Palomar, Passatge Studio… self-run independent spaces that generate practices and exchange within the art scene through emergent practices and direct contact. We’d like to consider ourselves members of their family, because many of them have been responsible for the workshops and courses that A*DESK carried out from 2009 until 2012, and in some cases these ties remain as they continue to be collaborators and friends.

It may be because we miss these reunions, with their intellectual premises and affectionate environment, because we think it is necessary to consider them from a critical perspective, or because we see them everywhere (and, therefore, we need to talk about them) that the subject for March has been the Workshop.

Peio Aguirre initiated a great monthly issue revising chronologically (and morphologically) this practice across the state. An excellent review of the whys and wherefores of the evolution of the workshop since the seventies and eighties up until the present day, with a particular emphasis on the ways of doing that this evolution has been able to generate.

On her part, Caterina Almirall focused on the reality of the workshop itself, from a more personal and accepting perspective. She defended, based on the explanation and revision of her recent experiences the nature of the workshop as a space of resistance to contemporary temporality.

The interview of the month took the form of a conversation between David Armengol and Antoni Hervàs, based on the “Fénix” project of workshops (workshops with a mythological base that also touch on education, art, and magic) that Hervàs coordinates at Sant Andreu Contemporani.

And we brought to an end this month in which we have delved into the subject of the workshop, collaborative practices, and reflection, or more specifically this space of shared discussion (action, creation, and reflection) with an in-depth text by Paloma Checa-Gismero,.Who embroiders an excellent critical traverse from the sixties onwards, with stops at Tucumán Arde (Rosario, 1968); Womanhouse (Los Angeles, 1972); as well as Düsseldorf and the world of Joseph Beuys.

Enter and read (share and feel).