20190513_MUN_ExposicionAlumnosMCS

The students of the Master in Curatorial Studies of the Museo Universidad de Navarra presented last May 9 the exhibition Art and Spacedirected by the professor of the School of Architecture Javier Antón. The sample, which can be visited until Thursday at the Palacio del Condestable in Pamplona, reflects on the role of space and visual aspects in the narrative of the exhibitions.

As Antón explains, "telling a story in a exhibition is very different from telling it in a book". To explore these differences, "each student chose a exhibition and analyzed its visual and spatial strategies. Then, in groups of five, they made an intervention proposal in the courtyard of the Condestable with respect to that theme". Specifically, five themes were addressed -perception, materiality, color, sound and display- and each one was narrated in the form of an installation in the space of this building in Pamplona's Casco Viejo. 

The inaugural event consisted of a colloquium, graduate How does one reactivate, reinterpret or resignify a public space?moderated by Master in Curatorial Studies student Janila Castañeda. It was attended by Professor Javier Antón; Nieves Acedo, director of the Master in Curatorial Studies; Oskia Ugarte, director of the Huarte Center for Contemporary Art; curator and professor at the University of Navarra Javier Ortiz Echagüe; and artist Alejandro Marote, member of the Blankpaper Photography collective in Madrid.

Castañeda said that, as a result of the exhibition, they have reflected on "how spaces change through the intervention of people and how a space can be transformed through art. We are interested in awakening this awareness, especially with the intervention in Condestable. They are small installations that change the dynamics in which the space is traversed".

In his speech, Oskia Ugarte explained the change experienced at the Huarte Center, "from a space dedicated to the exhibition to a space where art is produced". In this regard, he stressed the need to build "a space that is inhabited" and to "meet the needs of artists and other community agents". In addition, he presented a project made by the center to bring art to the streets of the Pamplona neighborhood of Echavacoiz.

Along these lines, Javier Ortiz Echagüe explained another project Luminaria, which seeks to "take art out of the usual circuits, such as museums", which transformed the market in the Madrid neighborhood of Usera. The most interesting thing is that "artists do not come with a work, but visit that space and react with proposals that have to do with it".

Regarding this intervention of the urban space, artist Alejandro Marote stressed the importance of "working with absolute freedom because only from the utopian imagination can we change the way we use art". He did not forget to emphasize the "tremendous responsibility of artists, especially in public spaces, which belong to everyone.