Visita-Taller

“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.

Where does a drawing begin and where does it end? Is it a line on paper or a way of thinking? A gesture of the body? A conversation? A way of being together?

Nadia Barkate and Fátima Moreno’s exhibition The List invites us to approach drawing as a living, undisciplined and open territory. A place where images do not always follow a predetermined plan, where bodies are transformed, stories intermingle and forms seem to emerge simultaneously from memory, imagination and desire.

This tour and workshop invites groups to explore the exhibition through observation, conversation and collective experimentation. We will look closely at the works, asking ourselves not only what they tell us, but also what lies beyond what they appear to be saying. We will explore drawing as gesture and thought in motion, as writing, imprint, play and a possibility for encounter.

Together, we will develop practices that allow us to listen to the unexpected, activate the imagination and discover what happens when drawing ceases to be merely a form of representation and becomes a shared action.

Because sometimes a drawing is not something we make, but something that happens.

We invited the artist Eva Garrido to help us develop this project. Eva is one of those artists capable of opening up spaces where imagination, listening and collective experience become tools for looking through a different lens. Her work moves between drawing, performance, writing and the body, exploring processes of collaborative creation in which what matters is not only the outcome, but everything that happens as we create together.

We think this workshop will be a wonderful adventure for those who visit us, and also for ourselves. A space to imagine together, allow ourselves to be surprised and continue creating.

We look forward to seeing you.

Going out on to the street to propose practices that alter the logical order of things; sticking chewing gum on the museum entrance to create a collective sculpture with the fingerprints of the all students; hanging their own flag on the museum facade (if only for a minute); and inventing ranges of colour to reconstruct the Móstoles landscape at precisely 12.30 noon.  

These are just some of the experiences in which students who have visited the Museo CA2M have engaged.  

During the school year we propose an experience for secondary and upper secondary students that will turn the museum into a space for creation, investigation and collective thinking.  

This year the activities will revolve around the Murky Waters exhibition by Inês Zenha, their first institutional solo show in Spain. Zenha explores queer identity, desire and vulnerability through installations, paintings and sculptures that invite us to rethink the body, fluidity and power structures.  

With this same focus, we have invited the artist Aicha Josefa Trinidad Gououi to help us design strategies to activate the exhibition spaces and generate meaningful experiences with the students. The aim is to establish a direct link between contemporary artistic practices and young people, encouraging critical thinking and discussion about topical social and cultural themes.  

What do we propose?  

• An encounter inspired by the desire to share knowledge, practices and experiences.  
• A space to imagine other ways of being together.  
• An opportunity to turn the museum into a laboratory, a stage, a shelter.  

Aicha Josefa Trinidad Gououi is a researcher and artist. Her work explores how first-person writing and lived experiences can become forms of knowledge. 

Raising our own flag on the museum’s façade for one minute. Inventing colour palettes that we’ll use to build the landscape of Móstoles precisely at thirty minutes past noon. Bringing our bodies together close, really, really close, until we become a huge rock. Doing meditation exercises on the building’s rooftop or imagining the sunset-tinged evening sky.

These are just a few of the experiences that the students who visited the museum had. During the school year, we offer activities designed for groups of secondary and baccalaureate students that revolve around the exhibitions and seek to generate meaningful experiences. Our project aims to forge a direct tie between contemporary artistic practices and students with the goal of revitalising and bringing new life to the museum’s spaces. To do so, we approach the exhibitions as spaces of creation and collective inquiry.

This time, we’ll work with the exhibitions of Santiago Sierra and Sol Calero. Exploring these two shows will enable us to connect with topics like identity, migration, power and exclusion. This experience seeks to not only expand students’ understanding of contemporary social and cultural issues but also generate spaces for critical thinking. It is an encounter designed with the desire to share knowledge, practices and experiences and to debate the content of the exhibitions with the students.

With this approach in mind, we have invited the artist Marta van Tartwijk to work with us to come up with and design strategies to activate the exhibition spaces.

Marta van Tartwijk (Barcelona, 1990) has a degree in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid and furthered her training at the École Superieur d’Art de Bretagne (France), the University of Barcelona and A*Desk. She has exhibited and developed her work in different institutions like Fabra i Coats, INJUVE, Sala de Arte Joven, TEA Tenerife, La Capella, Bilbaoarte, DosMares and Matadero. In her practice, she explores how images can access personal experience and serve as a hinge that articulates times, contexts and subjective experiences by experimenting with body and language.