Workshop

Odd Dance is a workshop for all kinds of bodies with all types of experience on dance floors and in festivals and ballrooms, where you can practise classical couple dances in a trio. It’s harder to keep the beat and steps of a dance with three people dancing, but this is precisely what makes us learn new ways of moving.

Odd Dance is a workshop where the simple action-question of translating classic couple dances for two into trio dances for three, or five, or seven, will provide us with the framework of joint investigation and creation in which we’ll get in touch with each other and our own bodies, the bodies of others and the world around us using movement and dance as a means of bonding and creative expression.

Oihana Altube is a dancer and choreographer who is also trained in dance movement therapy. She works on the margins of dance and the live arts.

Ciudad Sur (‘Southern City’) is a space for shared experimentation launched in 2021 which, taking Móstoles as its starting point, aims to explore the many facets and many riches that generate a sense of belonging in the cities that make up the Madrid’s metropolitan area.   

In this third edition, we will approach Móstoles as post-tourist guides, travelling together through a series of architectures composed of layers of time, experiences and lived moments around what we call free time, based on a proposal of shared experimentation in which this dormitory town will become a holiday destination. 

Leisure, what we call ‘free time’, is one of the things we desire most, a place where we indulge in experiences - lived or projected – which are associated with enjoyment.  

There is a leisure with which we live every day, that which marks the pauses in the flow of daily activity, such as the time we dedicate to sport and its promise of a balanced, healthy, desirable life. But there is also leisure that functions as an escape route, a time and a place where limits are widened: popular festivals, nights out... and of course, the idea of true leisure, and the search for total disconnection: holidays. A long pause that allows us, at least for a while, to pretend to live under another logic, to try to be other people.                                                                                                                

As dormitory towns grew, low-cost ‘getaway’ flights multiplied, definitively linking holidays with the idea of travel. To this end, the tourism industry offers us a myriad of destinations to match our dreams and our wallets, deploying a whole travel imaginary in which this desired ‘freedom’ can take shape. A catalogue of beautiful scenes often constructed in contrast to everyday spaces, based on a play of opposites. From urban grey to the infinite blue skies and seas; from the brick of the city to the white of the Costa Brava, or the warm gold of the sun... But never the ‘brown coast’. This ‘coast’ is Madrid’s metropolitan area, which will be the setting for the activities proposed in this programme, where we will reflect on the evolution of the urban, political and social criteria that have built this city’s landscape of leisure infrastructures. 

The sessions will take place between October 2023 and May 2024: 3rd of October, 7th of November, 12th of December, 16th of  January, 20th of February, 12th of March, 16th of April and 7th of May 2024. 

Coordinated by: Irene de Andrés, La Liminal and Estrella Serrano.

Irene de Andrés was born in one of the world’s most desirable destinations - the island of Ibiza - which has inevitably led her to investigate the evolution of the concept of leisure and the very meaning of travel throughout history, from the first settlers to today’s tour operators. Spas, cruise ships and nightclubs are the key settings for the artist who, through film, sculptural pieces and graphic work, creates journeys through time and through different waters, connecting different historical events that make us reflect on the model of tourist consumption, especially designed for the working class. 

La Liminal is a cultural mediation collective that investigates the city and uses the urban tour as a tool to analyse public space collectively. Our aim is to experiment with the urban landscape in order to propose new readings that focus on those stories that have been made invisible over time, those we have not sufficiently valued, in order to construct alternative discourses that are based on collective learning and that allow for a re-appropriation of the idea of public space as a common good. 

‘I didn't expect such a sound to come out of such a small body. It was very impressive, she wanted to do the same with her voice: not to disguise it, but to dress it with other voices, her voice, her throat, as if another voice was coming from inside her, as if she were speaking, not with another, with herself, having a conversation, for example, about what disappears, from babbling to the last breath without passing through the middle, with a new everyone-voice, what would it be like? A mouth with many tongues, a ventriloquist who comes to us to multiply our voices, to transcribe the sound like when that leaf sounded like a twirler, as if it was telling us come on, let's go, its sound, that amplified experience, we had to draw the sound out of the ground, what does that mean? I don't know, it was like a breathing game, I was obsessed with feeling that sound, focusing attention on what you hear after singing, the throat clearing, the swan song with many tongues, the song that accompanies the moment just before going to sleep, doing it until we were voiceless together.’ 

An amateur choir is a creative project in which any kind of voice is welcome to participate. Every other Thursday, the choir does its own research sessions as well as sessions with artists who work with voice and listening.  

Our Amateur Choir has included Sonia Megías, Itziar Okáriz, Jaume Ferrete, María Salgado and Fran MM Cabeza de Vaca, Rocío Márquez, Alma Söderberg, Ainara Lagardon, Jhana Beat, Lolita Versache, Bea Narcoléptica, Luz Prado, Los Torreznos, Makiko Kitago, Julián Mayorga, Agnès Pe, Paloma Carrasco, Anto Rodríguez, Elisa C. Martín, Elena Murcia Pinto with Marina Peralta Murcia, Inma Marín with Jon Cañal and Tania Arias Winogradow with Milo-Andrey Ulises, Rolando San Martín, Amalia Fernández, Elena Córdoba, Raquel G. Ibáñez, Alex Reynolds, Black Tulip, tacoderaya, Mónica Valenciano, Ruth Abellán and Arturo Moya, Ojo Último, Monserrat Palacios and Fátima Miranda, Sole Parody, Enrico Dau Yang Wey, Coco Moya, Veza Fernández and Noela Covelo.   

In May several birthdays are celebrated in Madrid, and we are going to make a gift-tribute to our region. Through two workshops, the artist Clara Moreno Cela shows the public the process of her research on the identity of Madrid. In order for everyone to enjoy this activity, the first day is aimed at families, and the second and third days are aimed at teenagers and adults.

During the two get-togethers we will explore our relationship with the city through music, performance and games in workshops that aim to be a reunion with other people, and is also outdoor fun that makes the most of our terrace. A Chotistón to commemorate the festivities and traditional festivals – called verbenas – that are celebrated on these particular days. A celebration that also belongs to Móstoles – the 2^nd of May – that has given us our name; a festivity we want to partake in as spring awakes.

On the first two mornings of May, we’ll create a show-gift to the city we live in. We’ll consider Madrid as a subject to pay tribute to through music, a show, a form of scripted madness. Madrid’s identity will be looked at from a folkloric and playful point of view during a two-day workshop, the result of which may be presented – time permitting – to friends and family.

1^st MAY: 10:00 –14:00h | 2^st MAY:10:30 – 13:30h

Workshop by Clara Moreno Cela.

Clara Moreno Cela (1993, Madrid) is the daughter of woman who is a bookseller, artist and cultural mediator. Her work bounds between drawing, performance and music, and she loves using literature as a starting point for the creative process. Her solo musical project, called Clara te canta (Clara Sings for You), brings all her passions to light in a straightforward punk way. She likes producing pieces using everyday things and pours her energy into thinking about the function of intuition in Art, the relationships between different species, and supermarket conversations.

Admission free during workshop hours until full capacity is reached. Capacity: maximum 20 people. Open to anyone who is interested.

CA2M’s Vegetable Garden on the Roof has been going for eight years. Over that time, we have experienced a profound process in which many different people have participated, making it a meeting point based on working together and sharing knowledge.

Since its beginnings, the idea behind the Vegetable Garden on the Roof was for it to be a space that would go beyond being an organic farming school and would form a community. This goal has been achieved; today it is a focal point for people with many accumulated years of learning, a place of enjoyment and coexistence based on the practice of agroecology and permaculture. It is also a place for the recovery of traditional knowledge of the farming world and a reflection on the challenges of being sustainable.

Today, the community of CA2M’s Vegetable Garden on the Roof faces the challenge of opening up to new people without forgetting the enthusiasm for research and experimentation that motivates existing participants. This course will give an opportunity to those who are interested in getting started in agroecology and permaculture, at its most basic levels, yet still meet the needs and pace of learning of those who have been protagonists from the start and who require more specific workshops with very advanced content. To do this, during the first part of the course, we will work two hours on alternate Fridays, to give possibilities to those people who due to work or personal circumstances could not attend the conventional schedule.

In collaboration with Instituto de Transición Rompe el Círculo.

PROGRAMMING. THE MOST NATURAL VEGETABLE GARDEN

THE POWER OF PLANTS 11 AM

5 FEBRUARY | Plants That Look after Our Health 1. 11 AM
It is easy to know what the healing powers of some common plants are, but it is not easy to know how to use them. Learn to differentiate medicinal plants, their properties and uses. 

12 FEBRUARY | Plants That Look after Our Health 2. 11 AM
This workshop will teach you how to prepare oils, ointments and simple macerations that can be made at home. 

19 FEBRUARY | Plants That Look after Our Health 3. 11 AM
Delve into the world of natural cosmetics with some simple recipes that can easily be made at home.

26 FEBRUARY | Plants That Look after Our Health 4. 11 AM
Learn about the benefits of having plants at home, which ones are best suited for each room, and how to care for them.

THE NO-PLOUGH VEGETABLE GARDEN 5 PM

5 MARCH | No-Dig Gardening. How to set up a vegetable garden without ploughing the land. 5 PM
The belief has always been that, before planting a vegetable garden, we have to turn over the soil. This system explains why we should not do it and how we can prepare the land for cultivation.

12 MARCH | How To Get Rid of Weeds in a Vegetable Garden (Workshop at Gabriel Celaya School). 5 PM
One of the reasons why we plough the soil is to remove weeds before planting but, in doing so, we provide their seeds with the perfect conditions to multiply. So, what should we do?

26 MARCH | Preparing Raised Beds. Hugelkultur and raised beds. (Workshop at the Gabriel Celaya School) 5 PM
Learn different ways to prepare soil and keep it fertile for as long as possible without having to work it.

9 APRIL | Vermi-Compost at Home. 5 PM
Compost is essential in a “no-dig” garden. Learn how to create homemade vermi-compost using kitchen waste to make your own compost. (waste, composting)

16 APRIL | Seedbeds Using a Biointensive Form of Agriculture. 5 PM
Let’s start planting and preparing our first seedbeds for this spring.

23 APRIL | Biodiversity – above and below. 5 PM
Learn how to maintain biodiversity both on the soil’s surface and in its subsoil, both of which are fundamental for keeping it fertile.

In colaboration with: Instituto de Transición Rompe el Círculo.
 

All the activities at CA2M are for free