We are opening «Un parque para Parke», the work of Reyes Pe

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Next 19th September, the Orba-Parque Alcosa neighbourhood of Alfafar (Valencia) will celebrate the inauguration of A park for Parke, a contemporary work of art by the artist Reyes Pe conceived alongside the Koordinadora de Kolectivos Parque through a participatory art process. The intervention is the result of Structures of affection, a project spearheaded by Concomitentes and mediated by the cooperative Massa Salvatge. 

The launch will be much more than the presentation of an artistic piece: it will be a collective celebration which will turn the public space into a space for play, sharing and meeting again after the months marked by the emergency caused by the 2024 DANA.

From the moment of emergency to the moment of desire

Following the loss of their spaces in the floods of 29 October 2024, much of the activity of the associative network has returned to the public realm, reclaiming squares as places for meeting, care and neighbourhood organisation. However, Public infrastructure has not fully recovered either: some parks, vital spaces especially for children, have disappeared in the wake of the DANA, while others have returned transformed into car parks. 

The project Structures of affection It was born in this context with the aim of supporting the neighbourhood's reconstruction process through artistic practices and citizen participation. In contrast to the logic of urgency, over the last 18 months the project has proposed a shift in perspective: moving from need to desire, collectively imagining new ways of inhabiting public space through urban structures with both symbolic and practical value. 

For months, the Massa Salvatge mediation team has worked alongside the Koordinadora de Kolectivos Parque to identify their desires, needs and shared narratives. After months of meetings, workshops and actions, it was decided to commission the artist Reyes Pe to create a piece of art that played with the idea of a children's playground and that it met the following requirements: that it was mobile, served for playing, generated an aesthetic contrast with the landscape, was for all people of all sizes and ages, and intervened, in some way, in the spaces where it is installed.  

The resulting work, entitled A park for Parke, is an inflatable structure that aims to reclaim play as a tool for encounter, celebration and community building. Far from seeing public space purely as a place of transit, the installation invites people to inhabit it through the imagination, the body and togetherness.

A collective party to inaugurate the work

The launch has been conceived as a celebration open to the neighbourhood in which the work itself will be activated by those who inhabit it.

Programming will begin at 17:30 with a welcome from the Koordinadora de Kolectivos de Parke and Massa Salvatge. Afterwards, there will be a shared afternoon snack and time to play with the installation.

The day will also include a concert by the Sedajazz children's band and one stall selling postcards made by children and young people over the summer based on analogue photographs about play and the idea of a park, as well as various festive actions linked to the installation.