When art floods the protest

Art has the capacity to explore new ways of approaching reality, to expand the ways of telling what concerns or affects us. This happened in the demonstration against Altri last January 15 in Compostela. A huge number of people flooded the city shouting loudly their opposition to the macrocellulose that is intended to be installed in the region of A Ulloa. This living territory demonstrated, together with many allies, its rejection of the implementation of an industry that would not only affect the region of A Ulloa, but also many of the territories that belong to the Ulla river basin, both their ecosystems and food production systems.

The demonstration, called by the Ulloa Viva Platform and PDRA, counted, among many allies, with the participatory art project Os Contos do Leite, promoted by Concomitentes since last year. The project seeks, under the leadership of the neighbors, to value the current ways of life of this region while claiming a future intertwined with the land. Among the actions linked to this concomitance, which is currently in the collective deliberation phase, was to take advantage of the synergies of art to perform this collective cry.

Thanks to many volunteers who held up a 150-meter long canvas, a simulated Ulla river crossed the capital of Galicia during the demonstration. The canvas was accompanied by numerous banners, made by demonstrators, representing some of the naturocultural elements that accompany the Ulla as it flows into the Ría de Arousa (cows, trout, cockles, cheeses, mussels, different types of birds, etc.). Thus, this collective gesture was able to underline the fact that the macrocellulose would affect many of the territories bathed by the river.

In addition to being exhibited in art centers, art is at the service of the citizenry and has the capacity to create new iconic images to respond to contemporary discomforts. This long canvas that ended in a square as significant as the Obradoiro, heart of the great Galician historical demonstrations, continued a genealogy of demonstrations, such as the Nunca Máis, in which citizens demonstrated their longing for the care of life through art and creativity.