The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Genalguacil, the Malaga town where all the neighbors are artists

2022-08-11T10:39:31.393Z


The inhabitants of the town are a fundamental part of the meetings that are held every two years and that this summer welcome seven national creators


The residents of Genalguacil (Málaga, 391 inhabitants) have been receiving unexpected requests since the beginning of August.

First they borrowed their mirrors.

Then digitize the pictures that hang on your walls.

And, later, photograph the traditional embroidery and sewing that they keep like gold on cloth.

But far from being jealous of their privacy, they gladly open the doors of their houses.

The requests come from the seven creators who are developing their projects in the town these days as part of the 16th Art Encounters.

It is a biennial initiative that started in 1994 to put the municipality on the map and fight against depopulation.

Today it is among the 11 most important in the sector in Andalusia, according to the Observatory of Culture of the Contemporary Foundation,

above the Teatro del Soho by Antonio Banderas or the European Film Festival.

"That yes, that they give me back my mirror," says Salvadora Holgado, 83, with a laugh, who misses combing her hair in front of him every morning.

More information

Art crosses the towns

The close relationship with the residents of Genalguacil —whose municipality is one of the most affected by the fire that devastated 10,000 hectares in 2021— is one of the keys to this cultural adventure.

The artists arrive with a project under their arms —this year 174 from 14 countries have been presented— that they finish defining after their coexistence with the inhabitants.

The Malaga town of Genalguacil has been hosting its Art Encounters for 28 years, which on this occasion are held until August 15.

It is an appointment that fuses art, nature and culture, and seeks to fight against depopulation.

It is attended by artists who have to complete a work.

The participants are, from the left, Julio Falagán, Jesús Madriñán, Gala Knorr, Javier Palacios, Mar Guerrero, Marta Galindo and José Manuel Martínez Bellido.GARCÍA-SANTOS

In the image, the artist Gala Knorr works on her work 'Isla de Encanta: Storyboard for an Andalousian Western', made up of a series of drawings.GARCÍA-SANTOS

Javier Palacios (1985) is one of the seven Spanish artists who have attended the Genalguacil Encounters.

In the image of him he paints his work 'Color morteretes'. GARCÍA-SANTOS

Genalguacil, which only has 391 inhabitants, celebrates its Encounters every two years.

In the image, Marta Galindo, from Cádiz, born in 1993, prepares a tapestry, entitled 'Summer Garden'.GARCÍA-SANTOS

The Genalguacil Encounters, which celebrate their 16th edition, were born in 1994. During the days that are celebrated, each artist must complete a work and sometimes they reach out to the neighbors to ask them to lend them an object.

In the image, on the right, Jesús Madriñán.GARCÍA-SANTOS

The artist Marta Galindo (1993) is preparing her installation, a tapestry for which she says she has been inspired by the curtains that cover the doors of houses to protect them from heat and insects.GARCÍA-SANTOS

Encounters are a way of keeping a town alive.

In the image, the artist Gala Knorr shows a drawing from her series, entitled 'Isla de Encanta: Storyboard for an Andalousian Western'.GARCÍA-SANTOS

In the image, the Galician Julio Falagán, 42, works on his work 'Zoom out', for which he has digitized paintings hanging on the walls of the houses of the town.GARCÍA-SANTOS

The impetus to collaborate is the aspect that has most surprised the newcomers.

"They have allowed us to enter their homes and they have welcomed us wonderfully," explains 28-year-old Marta Galindo, from Cádiz.

While using his computer and celebrating the views of the Genal valley from his workplace —one of the school's classrooms—, he points out that his inspiration has come from the curtains that cover the doors of the houses and prevent the entry of bugs or the heat.

She has also noticed the flowers that color the streets, with which she has created a digital

collage

that she has pixelated to physically translate it into a kind of tapestry.

It is made up of 15,371 beads in 17 colors, which she intends to string together one by one until her work is created.

"It requires patience, but I like to test materials," she says.

More information

The art of saving a depopulated village

While Galindo places the beads, the municipal public address system sounds.

"The City Council informs that the artist Jesús Madriñán is in the Plaza de la Constitución making portraits of all the people who come by", says the voice of the coordinator of the creators, Arturo Comas.

Photographing all the inhabitants of Genalguacil is the project of this Galician photographer, who seeks to capture the identity of the place through its people.

He has been inspired by the work carried out by his countryman Virxilio Viéitez in the 1960s. “What has surprised me the most is the interest, people participate and they don't even ask you what you are going to do with the photos.

They trust the artists a lot”, says Madriñán.

“It is that when you go down the street all the people greet you!

That doesn't happen to me in Bilbao!” adds surprised Gala Knörr, 38,

She has sneaked into Antonia's house, a neighbor everyone calls La Española, who has told her local stories.

One of her stories is the origin of her nickname, which comes from the thoroughbred Spanish horse that the police stole from her grandfather during the war.

From these stories, Knörr — the protagonist of a recent controversy at the Guggenheim Museum over a painting that traced a frame from a film — has prepared a series of drawings that he will reproduce on nautical flag fabric to create a kind of trailer of life by Antonia with an aesthetic close to the

western

.

This genre, usually starring men like Clint Eastwood or John Wayne, has here a woman, La Española, as the main character.

José Manuel Martínez Bellido, 30, from Cádiz, and Julio Falagán, from Valladolid, a 42-year-old veteran of the group, have also passed through the living room of this neighbor, who have toured a handful of homes without prior notice.

"And everyone accepts us," they say.

The first has been done in search of mirrors, which have been taken to a study located in an old blacksmith shop to scan them.

The result is an almost photographic image, made up of a dark base, strange shapes due to materials corroded over time, and small white lights, the dust motes.

An amazing composition of cosmic resonances.

The second has digitized the pictures that were on the walls of the houses.

He has hallucinated.

“It is normal to find hunting scenes or landscapes made in series.

Here almost everything is works painted by themselves or their relatives”, he says surprised.

He has also found a common point in all the interiors: reproductions of the Last Supper, a usual wedding gift in the region.

Your goal is to create a

large collage

to hang on a facade.

"I want to create something that the neighbors like, this is a gift for them for everything they give to the artists," emphasizes Falagán.

All the works of these seven creators will be installed in the streets of the municipality or the Museum of Contemporary Art, which already houses more than 200 pieces and maintains intense activity throughout the year.

“The relationship with the people here is incredible.

They do not stop offering her help ”, insists Mar Guerrero (Palma de Mallorca, 31 years old) while she cleans her mud-stained hands.

Several volunteers have guided her through the surprising and exuberant natural environment of the town, where she has been placing, to photograph them, fifteen round pieces that she has made with clay and iron oxide.

It is a work inspired by the story

The cleaners of stars

, by Julio Cortázar, which will produce both an installation and a publication with the images of the pieces as an archaeological work.

Also based on the story is Javier Palacios, 37, from Jerez, who has claimed the so-called mortars — holes in the rock, it is believed, of Phoenician origin used to grind and separate minerals — to create a large-format watercolor and a book about a creative process in which the residents of Genalguacil have also been fundamental.

50% off

Subscribe to continue reading

read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber

Source: elparis

All life articles on 2022-08-11

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-03T05:12:20.973Z
News/Politics 2024-03-18T10:07:30.150Z
News/Politics 2024-03-23T05:06:11.530Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.