Against the drought of the imagination: “Los caños”, by Francesc Ruiz, transforms southern Badajoz

Non plus ultra inaugurates its work

• The work of the artist Francesc Ruiz, who has exhibited in venues such as the Reina Sofía Museum, Gasworks in London, the Venice Biennial and the Götteborg Biennial, is now coming to the south of Badajoz.

• The route proposed by the artist will depart from Zafra, unfolding an experimental narrative through various points in the regions of Campiña Sur, Tierra de Barros and Zafra-Río Bodión, and will end in Llera with a meal.

8 October, Badajoz. Concomitentes invites you to get to know The pipes, the work of art with which the contemporary artist Francesc Ruiz has intervened spaces in several towns in the south of Badajoz. The opening will take place on the morning of 25 October and will include sign language interpretation.

Book your place for the tour here:

Ruiz has been the guest artist for Non plus ultra, Concomitentes' project to fight against the idea that the south of Extremadura is a dry place forced to depopulate. After working in the territory for a year, Francesc Ruiz invites us to explore the peripheral spaces of the territory from a new perspective that reveals them as places of life and future. At The pipes, which takes its name from the industrial estate of Zafra, the public will discover fountains, springs and pillars, both literal and metaphorical.

Based on the motto “Plus Ultra” (“beyond”), which in the Spanish coat of arms refers to the expansive imperialist and colonial heritage, for two years, the Non plus ultra project has worked with a group of young people from the south of Badajoz, led by cultural mediator Jose Iglesias García-Arenal, to think about the links, rites and imaginaries that we need to reverse an extractivist narrative that imposes a single way of relating to the land and to imagine other models of territorial development.

One of the concerns of the communities in the south of Badajoz is the disconnection of the territory, the abandonment of communication systems in the face of investment in projects that put the region's water resources at risk, such as the increase in irrigation, solar mega-farms or mining. The artistic commission they gave Francesc Ruiz, therefore, sought a proposal that would connect these two concerns: the need for new imaginaries and drought.

In response, Francesc Ruiz proposes an artistic intervention in which fountains are not only spaces for drinking water, but also meeting places; and drought has to do not only with the lack of water, but also with the lack of stories and imaginaries of the future. Thus, against the imaginary of drought and against the loss of public spaces and fountains that served as meeting places, with The pipes Francesc Ruiz intervenes, through a graphic language, in peripheral or passing spaces that usually go unnoticed. The visual narrative of Ruiz underlines the richness of these spaces by presenting them as places of crossing, circulation of communities, fluids and histories. Part of the artist's work takes the form of a comic book that will be distributed free of charge throughout the counties, and which has led to the organisation of a risograph printing press managed by the participants of the Non plus ultra project with the aim of continuing to use it to bring forth stories and voices from the south of Badajoz, as a metaphorical source.

Programme: 

10:00h: Departure by bus from the Zafra Trade Fair Centre.

10:00h - 13:30h: route through various points between the regions of Campiña Sur, Tierra de Barros and Zafra-Río Bodión.

13:30h: Arrival in Llera. Tour through its fountains, inauguration of the printing press and distribution of the comic book. The pipes.

14:30h: Lunch.

16:30h: Return to Zafra by bus. 

After this inauguration of the project he has developed with Concomitentes, Francesc Ruiz will continue working in the territory thanks to the grants for the creation, research and production of artistic projects in residence from the Ministry of Culture.