Bruno Ollé IN RESiDENCE at the School Narcís Monturiol

The words in the space

Bruno Ollé began his residence by coordinating several exercises on text and context. Starting with a brainstorming of ideas and automatic writing of concepts, various words were chosen to be temporarily installed in spaces within the school. The exercises analysed the importance of context in receiving one word or another.    

Experiments with unstable materials: could sculptures be made from them?

Another line of experimentation which was opened at the start was working with unstable elements we found. So, by way of exploration, small temporary sculptures were created.

Time in the space: a temporary intervention

Exercises with paper and pencils. An exercise was proposed for playing with the concepts of time and space: scribbling on a piece of paper. To do this, each time there was less time available, and the action would be repeated on new pieces of paper. All the resulting material, which corresponded to a specific period of time, was installed on the wall outside the school occupying a space. The work was left installed in order to observe how the passage of time acted on it.

The words in outside spaces

To carry on the work with words, it was suggested that we do the same activity in spaces outside the school. A short route through the Montbau neighbourhood was organised where, with the help of the templates with words and chalk, some of the chosen words would be left installed.

The notebooks

All these experimental exercises also fit into a very specific place: personal notebooks. Specific proposals were made from time to time, and in alternate sessions, for bringing paper and pencil into play, the two most basic and simple elements for a creator’s work. Some of the proposals were to sketch without looking, explain a concept through sketches, repeat lines or sketch in motion.

Vila Casas i Bombon Gallery Foundation

To find out more about Bruno Ollé's work and at the same time build links to spaces dedicated to contemporary art, two consecutive visits were organised to view exhibitions featuring this style of art. At the Vila Casas Foundation, students had the opportunity to see and comment on some of Bruno Ollé's pieces. 

Measuring the school with ropes, taking them outside and going round the neighbourhood

Building on the work carried out in various spaces in the school, students started to measure the classrooms and other spaces using ropes. The ropes were then taken outside the centre, to outside spaces, to begin an experimental exercise on these new spaces created and taking actions there that are usually carried out in the classroom. Routes and initiatives were thereby started through the neighbourhood: launching filmed pieces. Work sessions dedicated to designing a route to places in the neighbourhood that could serve as new locations for the actions. 

The phrases

Following the work with words, some “fast and sincere” writing exercises were created, which is what Bruno Ollé called them. So students wrote brief phrases on their thoughts, ideas, concerns and wishes. These phrases would be the starting point for producing the final piece.

The standards

After choosing twenty phrases out of all those that came up in the writing process, students did an investigation to find out which unstable and everyday objects these phrases could be transferred onto, from writing to object, to make standards which would be paraded through the Montbau neighbourhood.

The filming and the portraits

Sessions dedicated to filming the students carrying their standards through the Montbau neighbourhood. All the students ended up photographing themselves with their standard.

The Antoni Tàpies Foundation

The exhibition space for screening the audiovisual piece together with the standards was the Antoni Tàpies Foundation’s Auditorium. A session was dedicated to the conception of the installation and the opportunity was taken to visit the exhibition rooms and discover the work of Antoni Tàpies.

The presentation took place on the afternoon of 5 June and was attended by students, family members, teachers and people connected to the world of culture.