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Discovering the school together: first photographs

The Institut Verdaguer is a historical building packed with symbolic elements and special spaces. With the aim of focusing their gaze on these places from the outset, the first sessions were organised in the form of tours of various spaces within the school so they could discover them together with the creator. Once analysed, each student chose a space that especially interested them and they photographed it with an analogue camera.

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Journeys through Parc de la Ciutadella

Parc de la Ciutadella was the area the work was based on. From the start, the students began their work in a personal notebook, designed as a field-work notebook, where they took down notes of the journeys, wrote down pieces of text, stuck photos and so on. The first walks together through the parks began.

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Performance: references and first attempts

Adrian Schindler's work was very often based on performance. To introduce students to this practice, they viewed some reference pieces and a project proposal was put forward. Various sessions were dedicated to making, filming and reviewing the students’ various actions.

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Writing and reading texts: let's review the places in the park

After several trips to Parc de la Ciutadella, each student chose a space, sculpture or element that caught their attention, to draft a fictitious story set in a period in the past. The first term was rounded off with a group tour of the different locations chosen and the texts were read aloud in the corresponding locations.

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Writing and reading texts: let's review the places in the park

After several trips to Parc de la Ciutadella, each student chose a space, sculpture or element that caught their attention, to draft a fictitious story set in a period in the past. The first term was rounded off with a group tour of the different locations chosen and the texts were read aloud in the corresponding locations.
 

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CaixaForum

Discovering contemporary art in the “la Caixa” Foundation’s collection. A guided trip was organised to an exhibition “Una certa foscor” [A Certain Darkness], and a discussion was held on a small selection of pieces.

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Arxiu Fotogràfic de Barcelona

Based on Parc de la Ciutadella sites chosen by the students, a work session was prepared at the Arxiu Fotogràfic de Barcelona with a selection of photographs. Adrian Schindler, after researching the collections, proposed a photograph for each student, so they could have a dialogue with the written text. In addition, and accompanied by the Director, Jordi Serchs, the students discovered the archive's deposits and how they operated.

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Intervention with the photographs

Artistic intervention on copies of the photos from the archive. After this project, a small fanzine was made featuring the entire work process with the written texts, sketches and photographs used, by way of a conclusion to this joint discovery of the park and its history, monuments and small fictions.

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New performance proposals: Adrian Schindler with the sculpture at the entrance to the school

To conclude the performance discovery sessions, Adrian Schindler did one based on a bronze sculpture located in the school's lobby. This performance featured elements that would be key to the later part of the work process: contact with the sculpture, dialogue and use of two elements: a book by Víctor Balaguer and a beach wrap, bought from the street vendors in the park.

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Dialogue with Idrissa Dialho and the Víctor Balaguer sculpture

Parc de la Ciutadella is full of sculptures. Many of them are of “illustrious” figures from Catalan culture. Many things occur at the foot of these monuments which the students and the creator had already been observing: tourists stopped there, there were gatherings of friends, street vendors, buskers, etc.  There was an African musician by the Víctor Balaguer sculpture; Idrissa Dialho, with whom a dialogue was established and who was eventually interviewed. Hence the questions on migration, job insecurity, residence permits and so on.

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Born Centre de Cultura i Memòria

A visit to the El Born site was organised so students could find out about the history and origins of Parc de la Ciutadella in greater detail. Besides visiting the site, the students also saw a temporary exhibition entitled “Viure entre bombes” [Living among bombs], featuring children's drawings made during aerial bombings in the Spanish Civil War. They worked on the possibility of finishing their visit with an exhibition in the Sala Castellví, one of the facility’s available places.

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Imprint work: Prim and the Lion hunter

The reflections were centred on some of the park's sculptures: General Prim and the bas-relief dedicated to Spain’s war in Morocco, the bust of Víctor Balaguer and the Lion hunter. The three sculptures created a network of historical relations and questions that became the core of the final work. The decision was then taken for the students to go up to the sculptures and photograph them, sketch them and take their imprints using clay or frottage. 

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Screen-printed beach wraps

Archive photos, historical documents and books written by Balaguer on Spain’s war in Morocco were central images throughout the process. Thinking about ways to make them enter into dialogue with the imprints, it was suggested that some of them be screen printed. Joint work was carried out Taller 57 to that end over the course of a full day of trials, preparation and final implementation.

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Preparation of the exhibition

On the basis of the various elements carried out, a work day was organised to create the concrete feet that would ultimately hold up the screen-printed beach wraps. Work was also carried out, in the space itself and with all the elements there, on arranging the elements in the space. The presentation was also prepared.

Presentation

This was held in the Sala Castellví at the Born Centre de Cultura i Memòria, on the afternoon of Wednesday, 29 May. It was attended by classmates, family members, teachers and people from the world of culture. The exhibition remained open until 10 June. Part of the exhibition was transferred to the school, to be shown on open days for families.