Mercè Soler IN RESiDENCE at the School Menéndez y Pelayo

FIRST CONTACT WITH THE CREATOR AND THE ARTIST'S BOOK/ OBJECT BOOK (9/10/2018)

During the students’ first meeting with Mercè Soler at the school, the creator brought a series of her own artist books to show the students, which they were able to leaf through and they asked questions about the idea of object book, artist book and so on.

They came across Mercè’s subject of interest by directly handling and experiencing the objects. 

FIRST CONTACT WITH BOOK BINDING: MIDORI NOTEBOOKS (17/10/2018)

To offer students their first taste of book binding techniques, a profession linked to Mercè's work, it was suggested that they sew a Midori notebook, a simple sewing and soft-cover technique, which they would use as a class diary during the residence. They were then asked to bring it to each of the residence sessions. 

THE STUDENTS INTRODUCE THEMSELVES THROUGH A BOOK: WHAT WOULD THEY BE LIKE? (6/11/2018)

During the first introductory sessions, Mercè asked the students to define themselves as though they were a book, its materials, subject and so on. This form of self-presentation was posted on the project's blog.

She also invited them to visit a second-hand bookshop and choose a book that caught their attention for some reason, under the slogan “let the book choose you”. 

VISIT TO THE MACBA DOCUMENTATION CENTRE / MERCÈ SOLER WORKSHOP / GALERIA CHIQUITA ROOM (21/11/2018)

One of the first trips organised focused on the active discovery of the specific world that would be worked on: the artist book and the unique editions. That is why a work session was organised, specifically designed with the MACBA Documentation Centre's teams, to discover, leaf through and handle some of the editions making up the collection of artist books.

During this very early part of the process, a visit was organised to Mercè Soler's shared workshop, to find out about her work space, machinery and tools, as well as to discover the work being done by her workshop companions.

Afterwards, the students took the opportunity to visit an exhibition at the Galeria Chiquita Room, on the author’s publications. They discovered a rather varied collection of works by various artists who, despite having two fields in common (cartography and publishing), had very diverse formalisations. The person in charge of the space accompanied them on the visit. 

START OF THE EXPLORATION ON THE SUBJECT OF “SECRET” / DISCOVERY OF WATERMARKS AND VISIT TO THE MUSEU MOLÍ PAPERER DE CAPELLADES

Mercè suggested the students should start thinking about and exploring the subject of secrets; and she started by collecting the group’s secrets. She invited them to write down a secret on paper and place it inside a box. Those of all the other 4th-year compulsory secondary-education (ESO) groups were collected and a list of all the secrets compiled.

A visit was made to the Museu Molí Paperer de Capellades and a workshop held there so students could immerse themselves and learn more about one of the firsts materials they would be working on: paper. As well as the guided tour on which the paper-manufacturing process was explained, the Centre’s Director, Victòria Rabal, accompanied the group in preparing paper with a watermark designed by each of the students as well as creating pieces of paper with hidden secrets. They also took the opportunity to go on a trip to see the temporary exhibition on work on paper.

After the Christmas holidays, the students received a paper package from the Museu Molí containing the pieces of paper with watermarks made by the group. There were two exercises: a personal seal and a secret family phrase, chalked out with a line. 

OTHER EXPLORATIONS OF PAPER - VOLUME WORKSHOP WITH DARÍO ZERUTO

While paper was the first material the students worked with, a paper-folding and volume-creation workshop with Dario Zeruto was proposed. One of work projects carried out with this artist was also connected to an exercise on secrets. 

“SECRET” ROUTE THROUGH THE MUSEU NACIONAL'S COLLECTIONS

Discovering the secrets hidden by some of the works (there are works that are meant to hide secrets) was one of the two main aspects of the visit to the Museu Nacional's collections. The other was a free visit to research the works that the contained books inside them to take an inventory of them. 

MULTI-USE ROOM: RECAP OF PROJECTS AND IDEAS ON THE BOOK OF SECRETS

To see the work carried out and decide on the paths to follow, a special session was organised in the school’s multi-use classroom. The different materials generated were presented and students worked in small groups on possible formalisation proposals. 

MONESTIR DE SANT PERE DE LES PUEL·LES

The purpose of this visit was to introduce the students to the world of book binding and restoration, under the guidance of specialists and in their own workshop: materials, paper-restoration systems, sewing and so on.

X-RAYS AT THE MUSEU NACIONAL

The secrets boxes were a feature that came about during one of the visits to the museum: students were invited to investigate the plastic possibilities of these elements through X-rays. Working in collaboration with the restoration workshop, six secret boxes or diaries brought by some of the group’s students were X-rayed. 

PREPARATIONS FOR THE FINAL PROJECT: DECISIONS ON THE BOOK OF SECRETS AND BOX CONTAINING THE BOOK

The last sessions saw decisions collectively taken on the materials the book would be made from: the fabric of the covers, the type of paper and the way the texts would be printed on each page. They would produce a book with moiré-lined covers, cotton paper and laser-engraved texts.

While Mercè did the book binding of the final piece, the students experimented with the book-binding technique itself: this was book binding with a number of folds of sewn paper and a hard cover.

She also spoke with the entire class group about how they wanted to exhibit the book, whether or not it had to be accessible to the public and, following the proposals made by the students, Mercè came up with the idea of putting it inside a closed box, which would also serve as a postbox. The box would also include an audio with some secrets read out by the students themselves. 

LINKS TO OTHER GROUPS FROM THE SCHOOL

The work process entailed looking for and collecting secrets — more specifically, the secrets of the school's students. To this end, students were organised into groups that would go round all the classes, deliver the proposal and later come back to collect the small anonymous texts containing secrets, with a postbox made for the occasion. More than three-hundred secrets were collected, all of which came from the school’s students.

The residence also had an impact on the educational community as a whole. At the start of the second term, the centre’s teachers were given a presentation on the work process. Taking part in this presentation were Mercè Soler, some of the students and the teacher Berta Nosàs. They also took the opportunity during the session to collect secrets from the teachers, in the same post box which had been used to collect the students' secrets in the previous weeks.