Concomitentes launches second edition of Mediation Academy
The Mediation Academy, an online training space to promote social transformation through art, is offering two courses this year
Check the timetables in the full academic dossier here. The two courses detailed in the dossier are independent.
At Concomitentes we understand the work of mediation as a work that accompanies processes, drives debates, transduces desires and weaves complicities between different communities. Its practice allows us to promote social inclusion and cohesion, to address problems in complex contexts and to channel the transformative power of art, bringing us a little closer to the idea of cultural democracy.
The development of our work has given rise to valuable networks and knowledge that enable us to act in response to the major eco-social challenges of our time, which are perhaps more urgent today than ever before. Convinced of the current relevance of this work, we believe it is important to share this learning in an agile and accessible format so that more and more projects are committed to working through mediation, putting citizens at the centre. That is why we are celebrating the second edition of the Mediation Academy in style: with two courses that will delve into both different theoretical frameworks from which to think about mediation and useful practical tools for the field of art and social innovation.
The Mediation Academy is under the academic direction of Fran Quiroga, General Coordinator of Concomitants, and Marina Otero Verzier, architect and professor at Columbia University in New York.
TEACHING STAFF AND CONTENTS
We present the two Mediation Academy courses in 2025, independent of each other:
Ecological Agency: Art and Governance in the Age of Climate Crisis
From 20 to 30 October
In the face of apathy and despair in the face of the climate crisis, we propose to use art and the tools of mediation and participation to recover knowledge that has been erased, to re-enchant the world by discovering other sensibilities and to institute processes of ecological governance. In short, we will explore ways to become co-responsible for our environment by recovering our ecological agency.
This has the following sessions:
Investigations from below, by Godofredo Pereira, architect and researcher
Trafficking from ruin, by Lara Almarcegui, artist.
Fleeing into conflict: strategies and tools, by Txelu Balboa, facilitator, group coordinator, founding member of ColaBoraBora
Situated Mediation: Solar Narratives: Who has the right to narrate?, by Alfredo Escapa Presa, creator, live arts and collaborative audiovisual researcher and mediator at Concomitentes.
Tools of Sociocracy for a living organism, by Javier Fernández, co-founder of Altekio.
Collective learning, by Soledad Gutiérrez, independent curator and researcher.
Reassembling desires to repair wounds
(CONCLUDED) From 26 May to 5 June
Drawing on theories of reparation, we will analyse what participatory mechanisms serve to repair and care for that which has been broken: both territories and communities that have suffered degraded conditions and environmental processes that need to be remediated.
This has the following sessions:
Fabulations in times of collapse, by Naomi Rincón Gallardo, artist.
Cultivating relationships. The art of facilitation, by César Fernández, a founding member of the Institute for Process Work.
Title of the session to be announced, by Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, curator, cultural manager and writer.
Situated mediation: Non plus ultra: what territories do we inhabit?, by Jose Iglesias García-Arenal, artist, researcher and mediator at Concomitentes.
It Hurts Here: Cultural Mediation in Health, by Felipe G. Gil, co-founder of ZEMOS98 and mediator in Concomitentes.
Art as an act of reparation, by Fran Quiroga, Director of Concomitentes and multidisciplinary researcher.
What are we looking for with Mediation Academy?
- To contribute, from the field of thought, situated theoretical frameworks to promote a cultural mediation positioned from the social, political and ecological fields.
- Strengthen the capacity of cultural workers to develop participatory methodologies.
- To generate meeting spaces and common work networks between long-standing professionals and new professionals.
For whom?
The proposal is aimed at professionals in the cultural sector (professionals in mediation, curatorship, cultural management, arts education, cultural promotion, among others), as well as postgraduate students and all types of professionals interested in integrating and applying learning about new methodologies related to citizen participation and artistic creation.
Enrolment and types of registration
Each of the two courses is available in two enrolment modalities:
LISTEN: 10h : 6 teachers x 90 min Price: 75 € (VAT included)
PRACTICE: 10h of Listening [6 teachers x 90 min] + 15h of tutored sessions to work in small groups* : Price: 125€ (VAT included)
*You can find more information about the practical way of working here. in the dossier.
Go here to the registration page to reserve your place.
For any questions or requests, we are available at mediationacademy@concomitentes.org.
_________________
Cover image: still from a video recorded by Abel Morán as part of the Solar Narratives concomitance.
