2009-2010:Interventions

Aula Urbana Workshop: Art in streets

Educational project

On this sixth edition, MADRID ABIERTO has created the educational project Aula Urbana, dealing with the different artistic interventions produced, with the aim of favoring their development, diffusion and comprehension. The educational program, created by María Molina López, is aimed at any person or citizen collective that might be interested in participating in this initiative, which is being elaborated with the support of the Faculty of Education of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, with the tutorship of Marian López Fernández Cao and doctor Alfredo Palacios Garrido, coordinator and professor, respectively, of the PhD program Aplicaciones del arte en la integración social: arte, terapia y educación en la diversidad.*

The fundamental aims of this educational project are, on the one hand, to involve citizens in public art, in order for them to interpret and enjoy it, developing a critical reflection on the city and promoting the feeling that it is their belonging, while observing and perceiving the changes that artistic interventions may provoke in public spaces, seeking, at the same time, for their sensitive response and appreciation of the evocative, expressive, esthetical and functional qualities these pieces may have.

The educational project is made up of three stages. On the first one, the program of MADRID ABIERTO is delivered to the participants. The project begins once they are given the location and characteristics of the different pieces on which they will work. Also, in this first session, those interested will be invited to participate, on the 4th and 5th of February, in the opening of the selected projects for this edition, event that will take place in La Casa Encendida.

During the month of February, the second stage of the project begins. In this period of time the participants will carry out the different perceptual activities corresponding to each of the pieces, so that they are able to understand them in their proper context. At the same time, information regarding the interaction between the public and the interventions will be gathered, using audiovisual and photographic material as well as interviews or questionnaires.

Finally, on the third phase, the participants will share the obtained data in active observation. They will reflect on the pieces, which will be analyzed, and conclusions will be developed as exercise in order to synthesize the information. In this final stage the aim is to help the participants retain and consolidate the acquired knowledge, with two different proposals or optional courses of action: one which intends to improve the artist's work and its interaction with the citizens, and another to promote participants own artistic creations.

This educational project has been initiated as an experiment, on November, with two groups of middle school students from the Sagrado Corazón de Jesús in Madrid. On the month of December, an open call for participation in the project Aula Urbana was made, intended for education centers and citizen organizations. It will be open during January of 2010. Along the month of February the educational project activities will take place with the school named above and with those who are interested in participating, coinciding with the artistic interventions of MADRID ABIERTO.

* Applications of art on social integration: art, therapy and education in diversity.