Project Flying Carpet, Belalcázar, Spain, June 2011
Introduction:
In El Pósito, temporary stored, were pieces that contain memories of my experience in Belalcázar. I came to this village, carrying a precious object on my back: the Flying Carpet that was made for me by the children of Llorenç del Penedés, Catalunya. I presented it to the 5th graders of colegio Sor Felipa de la Cruz as an offering, and asked for another carpet to be made in exchange for the carpet made by the Catalan children. Together, we felted wool in the ancient laundry room, a site no longer useful, like the process of making felt from scratch, abandoned practices in our daily lives. As wool slowly transformed into felt, each fiber irreversibly interconnecting with the next, we created a dense substrate that is a metaphor of our society. From this site we entered the intangible space, the space of memories and transformation. Imitating a flock of sheep, bell in their hands, the children steered me through the extraordinary sites of their town’s garment: the church, the cave, the roman bridge, the overview, and of course the castle. We only scratched the surface, but I felt the magic and saw the village through their eyes.
In El Pósito, I presented what was given to me: the experience of working at the convent, and the physical memories of my collaboration with the village. Displayed there was the video of the children working, and the visible and invisible work of many men and women, coming together in unison to create something that is known to be impossible.
I view Project Flying Carpet as an attempt to return to seeing anew, to the collective, to a way of working and living at a slower pace, the pace of a land insect, the sheep, slowly traveling up and down dusty Cañada Reals - thorough, productive and moving forward. The Flying Carpet Prayers exhibition is a calcification of a fantasy about a version of a world in which we effortlessly make decisions as a group, welcome strangers with open arms, notice how special and generous the world in which we live is, stitched together by faith in the boundless potential of creativity.
Credits:
Special Thanks: La Fragua Artist Residency, Jimmy, Manolo and Andre Galindo, Carlos Nero, Gonzalo Duran, Chato and Carlota.
Workshop: with the help of Javier Orcaray, Rosana Cámara
Participants:
Alumnos de 5A and 5B Colegio Sor Felipa de la Cruz
Stitchers:
Pepa Castillejo Delgado
M Josefa Garcia Lopez
Antonia Medina Moreno
Olalla Torrero Bravo
Carmen Medina Moreno
Exhibition:
Video: Esther Marquina, Carlos Nero (edited by Rosana Cámara)
Sound: Sebastian Alvarez
Website Photography:
Rosana Cámara, Liliya Lifanova
In El Pósito, temporary stored, were pieces that contain memories of my experience in Belalcázar. I came to this village, carrying a precious object on my back: the Flying Carpet that was made for me by the children of Llorenç del Penedés, Catalunya. I presented it to the 5th graders of colegio Sor Felipa de la Cruz as an offering, and asked for another carpet to be made in exchange for the carpet made by the Catalan children. Together, we felted wool in the ancient laundry room, a site no longer useful, like the process of making felt from scratch, abandoned practices in our daily lives. As wool slowly transformed into felt, each fiber irreversibly interconnecting with the next, we created a dense substrate that is a metaphor of our society. From this site we entered the intangible space, the space of memories and transformation. Imitating a flock of sheep, bell in their hands, the children steered me through the extraordinary sites of their town’s garment: the church, the cave, the roman bridge, the overview, and of course the castle. We only scratched the surface, but I felt the magic and saw the village through their eyes.
In El Pósito, I presented what was given to me: the experience of working at the convent, and the physical memories of my collaboration with the village. Displayed there was the video of the children working, and the visible and invisible work of many men and women, coming together in unison to create something that is known to be impossible.
I view Project Flying Carpet as an attempt to return to seeing anew, to the collective, to a way of working and living at a slower pace, the pace of a land insect, the sheep, slowly traveling up and down dusty Cañada Reals - thorough, productive and moving forward. The Flying Carpet Prayers exhibition is a calcification of a fantasy about a version of a world in which we effortlessly make decisions as a group, welcome strangers with open arms, notice how special and generous the world in which we live is, stitched together by faith in the boundless potential of creativity.
Credits:
Special Thanks: La Fragua Artist Residency, Jimmy, Manolo and Andre Galindo, Carlos Nero, Gonzalo Duran, Chato and Carlota.
Workshop: with the help of Javier Orcaray, Rosana Cámara
Participants:
Alumnos de 5A and 5B Colegio Sor Felipa de la Cruz
Stitchers:
Pepa Castillejo Delgado
M Josefa Garcia Lopez
Antonia Medina Moreno
Olalla Torrero Bravo
Carmen Medina Moreno
Exhibition:
Video: Esther Marquina, Carlos Nero (edited by Rosana Cámara)
Sound: Sebastian Alvarez
Website Photography:
Rosana Cámara, Liliya Lifanova
