Five cultural mediation projects from all over Spain will participate in the 'In Between' conference on 30 November in Seville.

A Casa Vella, Conciencia-Afro, Banco de Proyectos Colaborativos (BdPC) / Tekeando, Cancha Libre / sala Rekalde and Plataforma Bajo Teja are the proposals selected from a total of 34 received.

Five Spanish mediation projects have been selected, out of a total of 34 proposals received, in the open call which was launched to participate in the space for meeting and reflection on participatory processes and cultural mediation in Europe ‘In Between. For mediation in Europe that strengthens inclusive communities’.’, promoted by Concomitentes and ZEMOS98, which will take place in the Teatro Central de Sevilla on 30 November 2023, from 17 to 21hrs..

Here is a brief description of each of these initiatives that will participate in the ‘Mediation Overview’ programme activity, which will be joined by other European projects:

A Casa Vella, Ourense. Located in the village of Amiadoso, in the Biosphere Reserve of Allariz, it is conceived as a space for artistic creation with a strong social vocation, of mediation and dynamisation of the rural context, with attention to the maintenance and enhancement of its endogenous resources and its intangible cultural heritage. Its activities are aimed at different groups: residents of Amiadoso and other rural areas, the artistic community, researchers and cultural and rural development managers.

Afro-Consciousness (Afro Space), Madrid. Artistic, cultural and political proposal focused on vindicating, celebrating and disseminating the realities and knowledge of the African continent and the diaspora spread all over the planet, in order to generate cultures united by an umbilical cord but different and their own. Its projects range from the Festival Conciencia Afro, one of the main Afro festivals in Europe; the programme of activities of the Cultural Centre ‘Espacio Afro’; and projects such as the ‘Revista Negrxs’, Campamento Afro and other advocacy and research projects. 

Bank of Collaborative Projects (BdPC) / Tekeando, Seville. An initiative that works in Seville developing projects that bring together situated artistic practices, cultural mediation, collective pedagogies and activist art. Banco de Proyectos Colaborativos (BdPC) is a programme of creation and research based on artistic practices linked to specific contexts and territories, born from the collaboration between the Instituto de la Cultura y de las Artes de Sevilla (ICAS) and Tekeando, with the support of the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation. 

Cancha Libre / Sala Rekalde, Bilbao. Open and self-managed group of young people, which since 2020 has been working in Sala Rekalde in Bilbao together with the facilitator Inés García. Based on different practices and processes, the group experiments with its own ways of approaching the artistic and cultural terrain of the territory. Against the idea of the exhibition as utopia, they claim the exhibition space as a place of (dis)encounters, connections, free experimentation and play.

BajoTeja Platform, Ávila. Artistic and cultural mediation platform located between the asphalt and the meadow. A young team that, from the cuir and multidisciplinary, investigates the resistance of the city and the knowledge of the people. They work from Avila and Madrid in community, educational and artistic contexts through participatory processes that promote diversity and cultural democracy; diluting the barriers between the traditional and the contemporary.

The conference aims to promote the exchange of knowledge and strategies on artistic and cultural mediation in Europe, and is part of the programme of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The meeting is also supported by the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation and Acción Cultural Española.

This conference is presented as an opportunity to disseminate mediation projects and to make contact with professionals from the sector within a European framework, in which professionals from other member countries will also participate, thus seeking to position Spain as a reference in cultural mediation in Europe.

The full details of the international programme will be made public in the coming days.