Los Encuentros de Arte del Valle del Genal 2018
by Chris Chaplow
The XIV edition of 'Los Encuentros de Arte Valle de Genalguacil' took place from 1st to 15th August 2018.
This 14th edition received 137 artistic proposals, not only from Andalucia and Spain, but also from the US, Portugal, Germany, Argentina, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Greece, Venezuela, India and Sweden. Of these, 10 projects were selected. Seven were individual artists working alone, and three of the projects consisted of a two-artist team, leaving a total of 13 'artists in residence' in Genalguacil.
All of the selected artists were either from, or had a strong connection with, Andalucia:
Name | Location | Instagram handle | Original title | English translation | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Eugenio Rivas | Puente Genil) | @eugenio_rivas_ | Cúpula de Silencio | Silent Dome | Concrete dome just outside village |
José Antonio García Vallés | Seville | @cachitovalles | The Sky twist | Pentagonal steel frame section forming a twisted tunnel | |
Alegría y Piñero | Cordoba | @alegriaypinero | Enciclogarden | Camera Oscura | |
Violeta Niebla & Alessandra García | Malaga | @violfta @alessandra.garccia_ | La lista de la compra | The shopping list | Experiment with shopping lists and the buying experience, presented as a video documentary. |
Javier Artero | #JavierArtero | Simulacro de día. Una aproximación a la línea de tiempo de Genalguacil | Day drill; An approximation to the Genalguacil timeline | Video mapping of a façade | |
Noelia García Bandera | Malaga | @noeliabandera | Natural Background | Photographing landscape backgrounds | |
Julia Fuentesal & Pablo Muñoz de Arenillas | Huelva & Cadiz | @fuentesalarenillas | Flânerie | Symbols and shapes | |
Paloma de la Cruz | Malaga | @palomadlacruz | Furtivo Encuentro | Furtive meeting | Ceramic mosaic in the village |
Florencia Rojas | Madrid | @florenciarot | En los mismos ríos entramos y no entramos, [pues] somos y no somos [los mismos] | In the same rivers we enter and do not enter, [then] we are and we are not [the same] | Photographic series taken in Rio Genal |
Álvaro Albaladejo | Cordoba | @alvaroalbala | Pinsapo | Scorched wooden assembled sculpture |
The artists of 2018 describe their works (Spanish) in the video below.
For the first time, the 2018 edition welcomed two guest artists: Françoise Vanneraud and José Medina Galeote. These artists created a temporary exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Fernando Centeno López, in a project curated by Juan Francisco Rueda called "Territorios. A las ciencias sociales por el arte" (Territories: Art as a social science).
Working around the main themes of landscape, history and different socio-cultural issues related to Genalguacil in particular, its depopulation and the aging of its population.
As usual during the two-week artistic event 'Los Encuentros de Arte' a number of complimentary activities and workshops were also on offer, open to residents of Genalguacil as well as visitors.
This year the workshop "Crasfteando: Education, participation and territory" was a project designed to encourage youth participation. Young people of the town could map the surrounding area, in order to develop suggestions and proposals for improving public spaces. Interestingly, this used the immensely popular video game Minecraft, allowing players to build with a variety of different cubes in a 3D procedurally-generated world.
Each day one of the artists talked about their work in a presentation under the title "The artist and his/her work".
The 2018 edition was overshadowed by the decision of the Diputacion de Malaga (Malaga provincial government) not to support the event, which has an annual total budget of 130.000€ with its usual 80.000€ grant. Mayor Miguel Angel was outspoken about the effects of this decision and set up a crowd-funding project to raise funds.