21 objects
2014
Photographs 30 x 45

During his residency at Institut Secretari Coloma secondary school, David Bestué proposed to explore what it means to go through a creative process and bring an idea to fruition, finally showing it in a collective exhibition, an exercise that the pupils at the school did with their own works before taking part in the artist's work process.

The starting point for the thought process was Bestué's own view of art history. Understanding this as an accumulation of layers, he proposed to update views of a series of sculptures, passing them through the filter of his own gaze and that of the pupils.

In order to explore this subject in greater depth and meditate on their view of art works, the pupils combined artwork processes with discussion about the nature of sculpture.

The many abilities of these young people, which became evident during the development of their own projects, became a tool, which the artist used to bring his work to fruition, with the objective of comparing the sculptures with other elements in an exercise aimed at updating and appropriating art.

Thanks to his relations with the gallery, Bestué was able to select twenty-one works from the National Art Museum of Catalonia that in some way illustrate the chronological evolution of sculpture. Distributing images of these works amongst the pupils, he asked them to research into their origin, function and meaning before asking them what new uses they would give them if they had these pieces at home. Finally, David Bestué used some of the pupils' ideas and some of his own to turn the works into design objects, as was seen in the twenty-one images in the exhibition.

This series of photographs is accompanied by an alternative guide to the National Art Museum of Catalonia drawn up by the artist with texts and other materials, drawings, comics, photographs and so on, made by pupils.

This project enabled the group to explore the practice of sculpture in greater depth and to consider the way we look at art works.

(Partial) Guide to the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC)
First edition
40 copies
June 2014
 

What’s an artist like you doing in a school like this?
Experiment 1: David Bestué in Residence at the IES Secretari Coloma
http://blog.museunacional.cat/en/whats-an-artist-like-you-doing-in-a-school-like-this/

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INTRODUCTION

There follows a rather special guide to MNAC produced in the context of the In Residence initiative and as part of the Art course in the fourth year of ESO compulsory secondary education at Institut Secretari Coloma school over the 2013-2014 academic year. The process was brought to fruition thanks to the help of all the pupils and the teachers Ferran Velázquez Moreu, Elisenda Benet March and María Asunción Álvarez de Paz, and the cooperation of Teresa González Verdaguer and Sandra Figueras Valls from the MNAC Education Department.

We selected twenty-one works from the sculpture collection reserves, ranging from a Roman figurehead from a third-century fountain to a female nude by Josep Clarà produced in the 1940s. Placed one after they other, they illustrate the chronological development of sculpture in our country. The pupils researched into the origin, function and meaning of certain works, as well as producing other materials, such as drawings, comics, photographs and so on.

They also helped me to transform these pieces into design objects. The aim is to think how these young people can relate to a series of sculptures today, how they can make these works their own and how they would use them if they had them in their own bedrooms.