Desalumnologia
2013 Installation_School Desk and Chair

To become attentively and critically aware of one’s surroundings; that is the germ of the kind of attitude required by both creativity and experimentation in art. We shall study the space we occupy and the situation around us, considering them as if they were the colours with which we are to paint a picture. From this view of what forms our palette, we shall define the framework for our action, understanding the context as the raw material for our creation and an irremediably integral part of our project. In other words, that everything around the work is, at the same time, container and content. We shall attempt to understand the rules of the game imposed by each specific place and situation, and will design feasible projects with the aim of approaching the very threshold of what is achievable. Drawing up proposals in a mode suitable for presentation to the those concerned will become a very useful tool for enabling the idea to come to fruition. Accordingly, we will work on the capacity of all of us to shape our own environment, based on the idea that art is as useful a tool as any other to achieve this.
 

What did we learn? 
We learned many things - the process went on for months! We discovered the work of the artist Luis Bisbe. We learned that art is not only painting and sculpture, that artworks can be made from anything, using all kinds of objects. To change to context of objects. To define abstract concepts. The value of art. To work with computer programmes. To create projects with models and then make a full-scale work. To install projects in the right place. We learned to live in the world of art. To travel in our minds to another world. Not to be normal. To create contemporary art. To think. To think differently. To work as a group. To be patient. To work with an artist. To work like artists. To feel like artists!

Fold-out catalogue
The ideas that emerged over the course of the residency -many of which were not finally brought to fruition- were all put into a catalogue that is distributed amongst those attending the presentation of Desalumnologia. In this catalogue, photographs and sketches show the models, drawings and other documentation on some of the ideas not finally produced.

“Room” for calm and relaxation
One of the first ideas-in this case actually produced in the classroom- was the Room for calm and relaxation, designed by the pupils themselves as a place to go when they were feeling nervous and unable to stay seated listening to the teachers. Several models were produced and the group discussed them all, noting their strong and weak points in order to combine all the best ideas into one construction. They painted the inside of the room sky blue, with white clouds. An opening, like a window, gave onto the outside world. A book containing relaxing images, texts and paintings was also produced and left inside the space. The teacher's chair -the most comfortable in the classroom- was installed in the “room”.

Public presentation at the school
The public presentation of the action took place at the school on June 11. The event was attended by pupils, teaching staff, friends and families, filling the stairs from which they could see the work. The presentation was also attended by representatives from ICUB, Barcelona Education Consortium, MACBA and Fundació Joan Miró, as well as people linked to the world of art and culture.
Together, the pupils took turns to read the text produced to present Desalumnologia, explaining their experience over the course of the residency with Luis Bisbe.

Continuity 
Desalumnologia was designed specifically for the space at the school where it is installed, and is expected to stay there. In a way, then, this is heritage generated at the school which should be appreciated and shared with the pupils, both present and future.

Introductory text by the pupils
Full version of the introductory text that the pupils wrote to present Desalumnologia at Institut Doctor Puigvert secondary school in an event attended by teachers, other pupils, famílies, representatives from ICUB and Barcelona Education Consortium and people from the world of art and culture from outside the school.

“Over the first few months of the school year we thought and reflected and spoke lot. We saw and discussed many works by Luis Bisbe. We worked a lot with desks and chairs, comparing them, studying them, representing the classroom... Then, one day, Mercè [the teacher] had the idea of making models of the desks and chairs. Then Luis asked us to make structures to think how we would install the desks and chairs if they were in a museum. And so we hung them from the ceiling. We got to this point through processes and thinking about what might be the best idea of all. We also allowed a few weeks for all the pupils to put forward their ideas. To remember them, we have published a catalogue of unused ideas. We will give each of you a copy.

We always worked with things that already exist, with materials or objects at the school. But ours is an empty desk. This refers to the absence of the pupil; it represents the opposite of a pupil.

Why “Desalumnologia” [Depupilology]? What does this word sound like to you? We made it using the prefix “des“, denoting the absence or contrary of something, and the suffix “logy”, which means a science or field of study (such as biology or technology). Our work, therefore, concerns the idea of stopping being a pupil, of going beyond being a pupil.

From a normal desk, we see the class, the blackboard, the teacher, the teacher's desk, the computer screen, etc. From our desk from Desalumnologia, we see everything that is outside: the landscape through the window, the shopping centre, the mountains, the houses, the sky. External reality. Everyday life. And, as it is very high up, we see many places that we do not know yet, where we have not been yet. We placed the desk by the window, looking outside, because it represents us looking to the future, toward freedom, where nothing is forbidden. A desk hanging upside down from the ceiling is not something normal; it makes you think, and this is what we want. Ours is not a normal desk - it breaks all the rules. It obeys no one and nothing, because it is on its own and hanging from the ceiling. It even breaks the laws of gravity. Normally, desks are grouped together, but this one is alone, separated from the group. Only a person would have this thought.

The work Desalumnologia makes us think of peace, confidence, freedom, solitude, thoughts, fear, height, abnormality, insecurity, feeling of flying, doing nothing, vertigo. The window allows you to escape; sometimes being at school is a bit like being in prison. We imagine that if anyone sat in the chair they would become distracted, letting their mind go where it wants, letting thought flow to no specific purpose or usefulness. As a work of art it signifies that anyone who sits at this desk is no longer a pupil, they are someone who can live everyday life. It is the freedom that pupils want; you can do what you want; live in another world; face the world as it is. Only those who take the risk can sit in it. We wanted to express a thought in an artwork. We made this work because we are pupils and it gave us a way to express ourselves. We would like to break all the rules.

People may think it's silly or a joke, and some will say that it is a work of art and has a meaning. For us it is important because we worked hard to make it. Artists dream up different things, like inventors and critical people. They are people who think about things that are impossible and make them possible (at least in their minds). We want spectators, when they look, to be surprised and think about what purpose it serves. Why is it called Desalumnologia? Why is it upside down? We want people to stop to think, we want to give them food for thought. At MACBA we learned that contemporary art always makes you think and that contemporary art needs the spectator to be active. For us, the spectator is also very important, because if people like the piece it can be considered a great work.”