Order letter Living Waters
Alejandro Alonso Sören Meschede
Living Waters' full engagement letter, signed on 9 July 2022
The CONTEXT
Concomitance in Llanos is the pilot project of Concomitentes in Cantabria, which seeks to develop its work methodology in a rural territory.
After an initial contact with communities in the Pas Valley started in early 2022, the mediators, Alejandro Alonso Díaz and Sören Meschede, chose to work with the residents of Llanos de Penagos. The reasons behind this decision were:
- The Valles Pasiegos region is one of the most characteristic of Cantabria, and exemplifies several of the challenges that rural territories face in the near future.
- Llanos de Penagos is located in this region and has an active and involved community, ideal for initiating a participatory and artistic project of these characteristics.
- The town has an administration that is interested in trying out different formats that encourage interaction between its citizens.
On 13 April 2022, a meeting was organised with the residents of Llanos to present the methodology of Concomitentes. About 50 people attended this first meeting and it was confirmed that there is a clear interest in this project in the village. As a result of this initial meeting, a weekly meeting open to the whole community of Llanos was set up to gradually define the commission for the artists.
THE PRINCIPALS
Throughout these weekly meetings, which were held between April and June 2022, a stable working group of about 20 people has been formed, which in its composition reflects the demographic profile of the village. This group is still open to new members, is the driving force behind the project and works on behalf of the interests of the whole village.
THE ENCOUNTER
Between the end of April and mid-June 2022, 10 working sessions took place in which the group defined three options for the future commission. These were finally narrowed down to two, and put to a vote on Saturday 26 June 2022. In this vote, which was open to all people living or owning a house in Llanos and who are at least seven years old, 108 residents of the village took part. With 76 votes, against 28 votes, with 4 invalid votes, the following commission was elected:
“Our desire is to restore the value of our relationship with water, to recover the traditions that exist around this resource and to generate a dialogue between the neighbours of Llanos, united in our interest to preserve this natural heritage that surrounds us.
This commission is based on a multitude of desires among the residents of Llanos regarding the rivers and springs of the village, among which the following have been mentioned:
• Care for the springs.
• Recovering the fountains and their environment.
• Recovering the spaces of union that once existed on the banks of the river.
• Reclaim/construct the roads along the rivers.
• Create an access to the pool and provide the space to be there comfortably.
• Improve the physical appearance of bridges.
We want to work with an artist who does not simply produce an object that responds to one of these themes, but who also has an interest in the village, who actively listens to the wishes surrounding this commission and who works with the village on a proposal that is above all for the community, thus helping us to create and strengthen relations between neighbours.
STEPS TO BE FOLLOWED AND APPROXIMATE TIMETABLE
After the summer break between July and August 2022, the steering group will reconvene in early September to choose up to three artists from among those proposed by the mediators. These people will be invited to a work residency in autumn 2022 and will be asked to develop a preliminary project. Once these proposals have been received, an information session will be organised for the whole town and a vote will be held, from which a winning proposal will emerge.
At the beginning of 2023, a collaboration contract will be signed between the commissioners, the chosen artist, the mediators and the cultural association fluent, the entity responsible for the production of this Concomitance, and the search for funds and the elaboration of the proposal will begin. This process is expected to end with a public opening of the resulting work in the spring of 2024.
Signed on 9 July 2022 in Llanos de Penagos.
