Playgrounds
Reinventing the Square
This workshop sets out from the discourse and works that articulate the exhibition Playgrounds in order to relate them to experiences of urban intervention in Madrid; a three-way exercise in active dialogue between the Museo, the participating audience and contemporary playgrounds.
The exhibition puts forward a historical-artistic approach to the space of play, understood as an area that breaks up daily life, transgresses and appropriates the public sphere. It stops at this playful and carnivalesque concept of life by outlining its political and activist dimensions and, setting out from this convergence, considers an approach to collective public behaviour through the analysis of previous historical paradigms and recent experiences.
Through this approach and the collective analysis of materials in the exhibition, an in situ conversation is cultivated with current associative projects that involve the exercise of participation and the active transformation of the environment in an urban context. This dialogue is made possible through two common premises: undertaking public space as a place for the construction of the public sphere and understanding that play is an insoluble part of this equation.
The activity is made up of two visits and debates that revolve around the exhibition, in addition to encounters with the groups and collectives in charge of the aforementioned projects to activate public spaces.
Participants
Basurama. A collective devoted to research, production and cultural management since 2001 that focus their areas of study and action on production processes – the generation of waste in these processes and its creative possibilities.
El campo de Cebada. A local initiative that occupies the Plaza de la Cebada, in the Central District of Madrid, for the temporary reactivation of urban space.
Esta es una plaza. A local self-management project that operates in an urban site, abandoned for over 30 years, in the Lavapiés neighbourhood, in Madrid, with the aim of recovering public space for the common good.
15Muebles. A movable platform: a conceptual, political and infrastructural project to refurnish the contemporary city.