Location

Trubia, Spain

 

Project Team

Virginia Lopez, Artist Collaborator

Platform ecoNodos: advising on the types of crops, planting and in the organization of the event

Neighbors from Cenero Trubia: sharing seeds, products, experiences and knowledge

El Tenderete de Cabranes: giving way in the monthly market Santa Eulalia de Cabranes for the dissemination of the project

PACA_ Proyectos Artisticos Casa Antonino is a “no-budget” project who focus in contemporary art, environmental practices and art education. The objectives of PACA_Proyectos Artisticos Casa Antonino are to promote the introduction of environmental and ecological attitudes in the arts; to conduct training, production, diffusion and education; to create collaborative networks of local, national and international institutions, universities, associations, foundations and cultural institutions; to enrich the local cultural structures by encouraging dialogue between artistic communities and other members of society. PACA creates, organizes, manages and produces cultural projects; conducts educational and didactic activities with social, democratic and comprehensive objectives; carries out theoretical studies, technical investigations and field works on artistic and environmental themes; organizes curated site-specific exhibitions and art events; documents, diffuses and communicates cultural and social projects using publishing and digital tools. Currently PACA Proyectos Artisticos Casa Antonino is run by Virginia Lopez, and aims to enlarge with participative collaborations.

 

BIG IDEAS/DIALOGUE

As farmland is being reduced around the globe, “I Have A Dream” Global Community Project hopes to draw attention to farming practices and communities by inviting artists to collaborate with farmers to sow fields or grow gardens in the shape of “I Have a Dream” in their own language. This community-based project takes art out of the studio and into the community and use art to empower communities through farming and gardening.

Trubia, Spain Project: Reflecting on the situation in the countryside and contemporary agriculture and its relationship with the city and increasing urbanization of the territory.

 

Overview

The project calls for moments of collective sowing, and documentation and several meetings with the local community and other local artists and local regional groups. These meetings serve to exchange knowledge, memories and create internal links to the local community. They serve to reflect on the situation in the countryside and contemporary agriculture and its relationship with the city and increasing urbanization of the territory, we will discuss about landscape, understood as a cultural construction in constant transformation that we are all artifices and therefore responsible. Each of the phases of the project will be published through the website, the facebook page and other digital media. Some of the meetings will be held within the framework of the Agricultural Landscape in Veranes, project designed by Virginia Lopez in collaboration with Lorena Lozano and ecoNodos which is subsidized by the Municipal Foundation of Culture and Popular University of Gijón.

 

Time Line

August – November, 2014

 

Process

COLLECTIVE SOWING DAY: 21.09.2014

The project began with a Day of Collective Sowing in PACA’s “Pumarada” (apple tree land : the apples are used to produce a tradional local drink well Known in Asturias: the cider, and some home-made ciders – produced in collaboration with a neighbor, Jose Manuel, have been drunk during the sowing day :

Sunday 21st September 2014, h.11:00 am, was a enjoyable meeting, an occasion meet local farmers and producers, and also to exchange some seeds. The schedule of the day was:

h.11.00_ arrival and informal presentation of the project

h.11.30_ planting – seeds were already in PACA, but a lot of people brought their own seeds or do exchange in our small seed bank

h.13.00_lunch with home made and local products (potato omelettes, vegetable soaps like porrusalda, tomato sauces and Salad) and homemade cider.

In the pumarada was organized a small market of local producers, among them Nel Canedo Saavedra, a young assistant pastor and cheesemaker (in queseria Aspron) that brought the famous Quesu of Gamonéu a special cheese from in the Picos de Europa Mountains (Asturias) where he is working.

From here, infinitely grateful to all neighbors of Trubia, Cenero, for their welcome, availabilities and generosity: Tino el Turrexòn has given us the seeds of : berza (a local variety), cabbage weevil, parsley and turnips, besides endless advice; Jose Manuel has invited us, last year , to his llagar,(where the cider is produced completely hand made ) and explained the whole process with passion, It’s the cider out there that we offered the sowing day; and all make us feel part of a community (Mario, Paulino, House Naviella, Irundina y family, Maribel, Consuelo….).

Now we are taking care of the sowing, and during the last month of November we will make some meetings that will be recorded for the final video:

to the young cheese maker Nel Canedo, to talk about the difficulties of enterprice a farm nowadays, talking about his experience as a sheeper in the high mountains of Los Picos de Europa and also about his future projects related with a curious initiative : The Sheepers School, where he has studied to become a professional cheese maker after finishing his university studies in History of Art.

A meeting with the Neighborhood Association and the environmentalist Association Les Caseries / El Texu which work together in order to resolve and discuss about local-regional and European policies about ecology, agriculture and landscape.

A meeting with local farmers and neighbors to understand their point of view about contemporary agriculture and landscape, but also to talk about the Caseries, the traditional hamlet in Asturias, which is being abandoned because of the urbanization and industrial process. But this is also a cultural process which we would like to analyze in deep.

 

Creation

The plan is to produce a video to include some moments we have shared last year when we have arrived to Casa Antonino to build our dream, like the cider process, the pig slaughter day, as well as archive images from the Museo Etnografico del Pueblu de Asturias, and traditional songs recorded in their archives and refreshed by some neighbors and by my grand mother.

 

Taking Action

The project is open to anyone who wants to participate and contribute something: seeds, participation at planting, digital documentation, texts, the project elsewhere in Spain or in another town in Asturias.