Visitando Madrid

Slaughter without fear!

2011-11-16T10:10:00.000-08:00

Today I visited AL MATADERO SIN MIEDO - the programme of Debajo del Sombrero that runs every wednesday at MATADERO Madrid. As earlier described the workshop started in 2008 when the team behind Debajo del Sombrero together with a group of practitioners with disabilities and their supporters came and used the open space in the buildings which then were and still are in the process of reconstruction.

Today the programme offers work spaces for around 20 participants with special needs. The activities are mainly concentrated on painting, drawing, construction, digital art and sound and movement. Essential for this programme is the collaboration with professional artists, the collaborators as they literally are called. They come from all cultural fields; music, dance, visual arts, theatre, design etc. These artists join the programme for minimum 1 month and work as volunteer supporters, facilitators and collaborators. At present there are 20 collaborators in the different workshops. I was curious how Debajo del Sombrero has been able to attract artists working on their own projects to come and work for free 1 day a week. I asked some of the artists and the common respond was that in the process of working together with people with disabilities they learned to look at art and their own projects in new ways. The straightforwardness and level of immersion they experience in the workshop at MATADERO has given them new perspectives on the practice of art in a way they would not be able to find anywhere else. Furthermore, the emerging and stimulating atmosphere at MATADERO is a great motivation for their participation.

For me it was very inspiring to see how the practitioners with disabilities worked on their own projects supported by the collaborator's ideas and suggestions to materials. The different workshops made up a natural unity of creativity and diverse expressions in a way I have not experienced before.

From the workshop SOUND & MOVEMENT:

MATADERO - a place worth visiting...

2011-11-16T08:17:00.000-08:00

...for being an old Slaughterhouse in transformation, industrial architecture mixed with innovative emerging culture... visual arts, design, music, dance, drama, urbanism, landscapism... for the inclusion of the community in the contemporary cultural scene... and of course for Debajo del Sombrero!

La Casa Encendida

2011-11-12T01:32:00.000-08:00

La Casa Encendida is an open and dynamic social and cultural centre in Madrid where you can find anything from the most avant-garde art and performance to courses and workshops in different social areas such as integration and solidarity. The cultural programme offers dramatic arts, cinema, exhibitions and other displays of contemporary artistic creation. Since its beginnings, La Casa Encendida has supported young artists in developing their initiatives with programmes such as 'Emergencies', 'At home' and 'Artists in Residence'. For more information, see website: http://www.lacasaencendida.es/

In 2008 the initiators of Debajo del Sombrero made a proposition to La Casa Encendida to set up an art programme for practitioners with special needs - a 2 semester course, primarily addressing people who has the talent and ambition to get an artistic career. The proposal was approved and today the programme has 13 participants supported by 6 professionals from different cultural fields, every Friday from 10 am to 2 pm. This programme is another example of how Debajo del Sombrero has managed to find a space in the emerging cultural nerve centre of Madrid. By working in the middle of where everything is happening Debajo del Sombrero is not in the margins or outside, it is involved and regarded as an art project as any other art project in the contemporary scene of art and culture in Madrid.

I visited La Casa Encendida on Friday where Teresa Isasi, a professional film photographer, was running a workshop in 'portraits' - how to catch the essence of a person by using light, composition and perspective in photography. Teresa has been involved in Debajo del Sombrero since its beginning, portraying the project and the artists.

El Sombrero at the University of Fine Arts continued...

2011-11-10T23:24:00.000-08:00

El Sombrero at the University of Fine Arts

2011-11-10T23:08:00.000-08:00

Every Thursday 5 practitioners from La Casa Encendida have been offered a work space in the sculpture department of the University of Fine Arts in Madrid. Here they work on benches side by side with the university students carrying out their own projects. For me it was an eye opener to see how the people with disabilities were a natural part of the university environment, having their own working spaces and relating to the students as they were fellow students. Luiz, the coordinator of the group from Debajo del Sombrero told me that one of the reasons why they were invited to work at the university was to emphasize the universal aspect of art practice and include the artistic expressions of the work by people with disabilities. Talent can be found anywhere.

Debajo del Sombrero - the organisation

2011-11-10T11:51:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday I had a meeting with Maria Sol, Lola, Luiz and Liz at MATADERO about the history, structure and future missions of Debajo del Sombrero. For a Dane like me it can be difficult to understand the structure of an active and well-presented organisation that does not have a permanent space to run its activities. So they outlined - step by step - a map of how the different programmes started and developed into the multi-faceted project as it is today.

AL MATADERO SIN MIEDO (slaughter without fear) started in 2007. The team of Debajo del Sombrero started to work in one of MATADERO's buildings together with 17 people with learning disabilities. At first they were showing up like squatters believing they were suitable for the new cultural and innovative aims of Intermediae - the institution of contemporary creation supported by the Council of Madrid, based at MATADERO. The following year they were given a space to have the workshop every wednesday as it is today. This acceptance of the project was of great importance for the beginning of Debajo del Sombrero as they were regarded as a group of artists working in an emerging cultural institution for contemporary art and culture.

Essential for the practice at AL MATADERO SIN MIEDO is the collaboration with professional artists from different areas (visual arts, music, dance, performance, art therapy...). In a period of 1-3 months the artists come and take part in the workshop carrying out their own projects as well as supporting and working together with the artists from Debajo del Sombrero. The main areas of the workshop are; painting, video, construction and sound and movement. I will visit and observe the workshop at MATADERO Wednesday next week.

La Casa Encendida
Tomorrow I will visit another programme of Debajo del Sombrero which started in 2008. It is based at La Casa Encendida - an important dynamic centre for cultural and social activities in Madrid. Debajo del Sombrero has been given a space for a course directed specifically to people who has the ambitions and talents to work as an artist. The course runs every Friday and at present there are 13 people with learning disabilities working in the studio.

University of Fine Arts
Followed by the course at La Casa Encendida the Director of the sculpture department at the University of Fine Arts in Madrid invited 2 of the participants to come and have a work space at the university 1 day a week. In this way they could work with sculpture as a medium side by side with the university students specialising in sculpture. It was not only to give the artists from Debajo del Sombrero the opportunity to work in an emerging artistic environment, it was also a way to encourage the university students to observe and learn from expressions of people coming from a different reality from the norm. Today there are 5 artists from Debajo del Sombrero working at the University every Thursday, supported by 4 professionals.

El Ranchito - intensive workshops
El Ranchito is an example of another programme of Debajo del Sombrero which is financed by La Casa Encendida. It offers 3 months intensive workshop for a selected group of artists. See description below...

Artists Studios
The last programme of Debajo del Sombrero is the Artists Studios which also is financed by La Casa Encendida. The programme allows Debajo del Sombrero to set up workshops at different professional artist's studios for a selected group of artists with disabilities.

El Ranchito continued...

2011-11-09T01:03:00.000-08:00

El Ranchito

2011-11-08T14:39:00.000-08:00

Debajo del Sombrero has been given a space for a group of 6 artists with learning disabilities in El Ranchito which is based at MATADERO. El Ranchito is a research project promoted by MATADERO aimed at developing new strategies for fostering art institution-based creation and reflection by providing residences and art spaces for international artists - launching open calls for energising the art scene.

In this collective art space the artists from Debajo del Sombrero work side by side with artists and cultural agents from various creative and artistic fields carrying out different projects. Maria Linaza is the facilitator of the group supporting and guiding them in their individual creative expression and process. The programme will last for 3 months - Monday to Friday from 10 am to 2.30 pm.

Under the hat...

2011-11-08T13:03:00.000-08:00

With support from EU's Grundtvig Programme and GAIA Museum Outsider Art, I have gone to Madrid for 14 days to visit and study the different programmes of the organisation Debajo del Sombrero.

Since its foundation in 2007 Debajo del Sombrero has existed to provide a platform for people with learning disabilities to be involved in and have access to artistic and cultural activities. The organisation has different programmes around Madrid that focus on the integration of special needs groups in the contemporary scene of art training, production and consumption. It is devoted to make visible the diversity of artistic expression and explore innovative ways of combining the skills of artists with and without disabilities. During my visit in Madrid I will be job-shadowing at the different programmes and study the motivation behind and objectives of the project.

This spring Maria Linaza who is working as an arts facilitator at Debajo del Sombrero, visited GAIA Museum for 2 months and took part in the daily practice of the museum's 3 year long art education for youths with special needs, GAIA Academy. During this time Maria followed the education's programme and contributed with her practical knowledge and experience in the observation and guidance of the students' artistic expression and development. Maria's visit at GAIA Museum will together with my visit in Madrid provide an exchange of our different practices that can be used in future international collaboration concerning methodology development within this particular field.

...

DAY 1: After cafe con leche and porras at the local cafeteria I went to visit one of Debajo del Sombrero's art programmes at MATADERO, the old slaughterhouse of Madrid that has been transformed into a new centre for contemporary creation. Here I met some of the people behind the project, Lola Barrera, Luíz Sáez, Isabel Altable and Maria Sol Alvarez. I was shown around the old buildings that were oozing of creative and innovative energy. It was almost like the walls were alive and about to transform into an experimental adventure of cultural experiences - some parts were already well transformed. Viggo Mortensen is doing a play there these days... Read more about MATADERO on the website; http://www.mataderomadrid.org/