“Taking possession of space is the first gesture of living beings, of plants, of clouds and of {human beings}: it is a manifestation of duration, life and balance.”
Carlos Raúl Villanueva (1900-1975), architect.
Before the museum opens to the public and before all the lights are on, while silence still fills the galleries, our security staff open the doors so that preschool and primary school groups can be the first to enter.
They arrive slowly, shyly. But little by little, the museum begins to change. Voices replace the silence, questions fill the air and the galleries begin to come alive with new ways of looking and being.
What happens when a group of children has the chance to make the museum their own? What if their voices could make it theirs—a welcoming place that feels like home, like something of our own, as a public space should? What happens when a primary school group makes the rules for how to be and spend time in a museum? What if they create freely in response to what they discover here? What happens when the group moves through the galleries as if it were a single person, a single being with a movement all its own, invented by the group itself? What if laughter echoes throughout the space, disrupting its constant silence?
This activity invites the group to explore the museum through experience, imagination and collective creation. Through artistic activities, the children will discover the exhibitions as an open territory in which to investigate, experiment, encounter one another and formulate questions. A space to observe, listen, ask questions, reach agreements and try out new ways of relating to the works, to the group and to the museum itself.
The activity offers an active, sensitive and participatory approach to contemporary art. An opportunity for the children to take centre stage in the experience and to recognise how a child’s perspective can open up unexpected paths, transform the spaces they inhabit and enrich the ways in which we all inhabit the museum.
THE INTRUSION. Other Ways of Taking Over Space is the second artistic collaboration between Teresa Serigó and Lupe Estévez, who are beginning to find their feet as “Montañas Sánchez”, the name of the collective that gives shape to their way of seeing childhood through, from, alongside, with and by means of art. Their artistic careers share a spirit of exploration across the varied landscape of art. They enjoy combining theatre, sound, the power of light, words, gesture and movement with nature, drawing on all these disciplines and nuances to accompany children on the creative and emotional journey through life.
CAPACITY: 25 PEOPLE
During these workshop-style visits, children will discover the exhibitions as an open space in which to explore, experiment, interact and formulate questions through artistic activities. The activity offers an active, sensitive and participatory approach to contemporary art. It is an opportunity for the pupils to take centre stage in the experience.
