What art matters to us? Strengthening citizen art in Europe

A day to think about the capacity of art to generate new connections with the citizenry

On October 24, at the Castillo de Mata (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), we celebrated What art matters to us? Strengthening citizen art in Europe.

*You can register for the morning activity alone, for the afternoon activities alone, or for both.

What art matters to us? is a question that appeals directly to democracy: we are interested in thinking about what capacity art has to generate new connections with the citizenry, understanding that this capacity is at the service of a greater democratic intensification and that art, moreover, possesses a unique aptitude to address contemporary challenges. Having overcome the clichés that present art as a hermetic territory, reserved to an exclusive community of artists, it becomes increasingly evident that generating spaces of encounter between art and citizenship is not only possible, but necessary: in them an explosion takes place that would otherwise not take place, an intensification of the sensitive capacity to incorporate the aesthetic, ethical, and political demands of the citizenry. This combination makes participatory art a privileged place to experiment with other worlds, imagine new solutions, and address collective problems from another place. Therefore, at the moment when Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is being nominated as European Capital of Culture, this day aims to open a necessary debate about the role that art can play in that process.

The day is structured around three axes. First, the capacity of art to transcend and expand citizen participation, incorporating artistic projects into participatory processes. Second, a debate is opened about what aesthetic disputes are at stake: whether it is possible to generate more relational artistic processes—that address the body, performance, and encounter, beyond the grand object—or, conversely, whether another type of works can be considered. Finally, the paradigmatic case of New Patrons (New sponsors), a protocol that over the last thirty years has generated more than 500 works of art in Europe and that Spain is developing Concomitentes, the organizer of this meeting.

PROGRAMME

Saturday, October 24. Castillo de Mata

You can register for the morning activity alone, for the afternoon activities alone, or for both.

10:00 – 14:00 Art Mediation School
A training space aimed at 20 people that aims to deepen the skills that define the practice of artistic mediation. Tools and devices will be shared that help place citizens at the center of the processes. The teacher will be José Iglesias García-Arenal, mediator of Concomitentes, artist and responsible for the platform Mal (Badajoz).

16:00 – 16:15 Opening of the day 

16:15 – 17:15 Overflowing civic participation through art
Based on concrete experiences, this table will address the potential of participatory art to generate spaces for listening, activate citizen participation, and respond to real needs of the territories. It will reflect on the impacts and scope of participatory artistic processes.

Participants:
Alicia Eva Morales Pereyra-García – Doctor in Arts and Humanities and postdoctoral researcher in the Research and Innovation Group in Design at the ULL.
Catalina Peña. Representative of the European Capital of Culture of Bourges 2028
Liliana Quintero – Pediatric ICU nurse and nurse at Our Lady of Candelaria Hospital
Moderator: Alicia Ruiz – Responsible for Concomitentes programs

17:15- 18:15 What aesthetic disputes are at stake?
This roundtable will address some of the debates that are currently shaping artistic practices: what role can art play in the face of contemporary challenges? and what new aesthetics emerge when creation is rooted in collective needs?  

Participants:
José Luis Pérez Pont – Artistic Director of Las Palmas European Capital of Culture 2031
Pedro Ayose – Director and audiovisual creator
Moderator: Pepa Octavio de Toledo – Artistic Director of the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation

18:15- 18:45 Performative action by Richard Mascherin
Performative action What is there between you and art?

18:45 – 19:30 The case of New Patrons. More than 500 works commissioned by the public
This conversation proposes a deep reading of the New Patrons protocol. A journey through its origins, its evolution over almost four decades, and its consolidation as one of the most relevant methodologies in the field of European public art. This conversation will address a key question: how has an artistic device managed to become an effective tool for democratic transformation? 

Conversation between Anastassia Makridou-Bretonneau – Mediator and Researcher linked to New Patrons France and Fran Quiroga - Director of Concomitentes

What art matters to us? Strengthening citizen art in Europe It is one of the eleven projects included in ‘Proyectos en Rebelión’, the activation program promoted by the candidacy of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to become the European Capital of Culture 2031.