Legacy Care

Galicia is an eminently emigrant territory, in fact, both the Galician anthem and the flag were first performed in 1907 in Havana. In 2015, more than 168,000 Galicians lived in Argentina, which is why Buenos Aires has always been considered the fifth Galician province. This exodus, which began in the mid-19th century, has conditioned lives, imaginaries and even the territory itself. Among the issues in which emigration is materialised, there are those poetics of return that were given by the hand of the “Indianos”, through philanthropic acts scattered throughout the Galician geography.

At the end of the 19th century, these emigrants donated part of their income to schools that still survive today; it is estimated that more than 250 schools or centres of knowledge were created during this period. An example of this philanthropy was that of the García Naveira brothers, neighbours of Betanzos, who emigrated to Argentina and, after their return, promoted charitable acts, such as the creation of an encyclopaedic park, the Casa del Pueblo, the Laundry, the Schools, the Refuge or the Asylum, all this between the end of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th century.

The Pasatiempo Park, one of the creations of these two brothers, is perhaps one of the most emblematic constructions of Galician emigration and the very iconography of the park is a sign of this. In this place, which currently has an extension of 10,000 square metres of the 70,000 square metres it once had, you can see works such as the iconic family tree of the capital, statues such as that of Charity, the Retiro pond or the representation of the Mohamed Ali mosque in Cairo, as well as caves and grottoes that wind through this initiatory enclosure.

The values, beliefs and stories that emerge in this park are clearly related to the contemporary. It is not a historical reading, but rather a re-signification that starts from memory, but which has to read the present. In order to think about this story and the subsequent artistic production, the proposal will be based on a pioneering exercise in ‘participatory research-action’, through which to think about the citizen's desire for the realisation of the artistic work.

Mediation throughout the process is an open call for participation, through constant attention and listening. A series of actions will be developed to generate an ecosystem of creation with which to plot this project and, at the same time, serve as a place from which to generate a citizen dialogue on the Pasatiempo Park itself, philanthropy or migrations.