Ghost Community (Northern Palencia)
José Luis Viñas
25 Jun - 11 Sep 2016
Views of the project Ghost Community (Northen Palencia), 2004 - 2016, José Luis Viñas. Call for Proposal's Lab 987, MUSAC.
Views of the project Ghost Community (Northen Palencia), 2004 - 2016, José Luis Viñas. Call for Proposal's Lab 987, MUSAC.
José Luis Viñas. Ghost Community (Northen Palencia), 2004 - 2016. Courtesy of the artist
Ghost Community (Northern Palencia)
José Luis Viñas
Lab 987
25 June- 11 September 2016
Ghost Community (Northern Palencia) is a project granted by Call for Proposal"s Lab 987.
Ghost Community (Northern Palencia) is a long-haul project initiated in 2004 by José Luis Viñas (Madrid, 1972). The work is the result of the artist’s long professional stay in Guardo (Palencia). He spent almost a decade in this de-industrialised area with a mining past. As in other regions of Castilla y León, coal mining underwent a phased and permanent "conversion process" which started at the beginning of the 1990s and brought ruin and a gradual deterioration of the area: depopulation, migration, abandonment of buildings and closing of shops.
Ghost Community reflects the impact of this process in the Palencia region of Alto Carrión, as well as in the artist, who witnessed it. Viñas depicts the social, demographic and industrial decline of the region through photographs, stories and collage drawings. Thus, he builds a personal and poetic atlas of the region, halfway between document and fiction. However, this atlas of economic and social erosion in the area is not Viña’s only goal. Beside the artistic works, the project explores in depth, claims and will incorporate the sensitivities of the people that embody those memories and experiences. In order to open to the community of Castilla and León, the proposal is presented by means of different approaches: besides having a project assistant who was born in the area, the researcher Sara Cano (Palencia. Santibáñez de la Peña, 1993), performing a Co-habiting experience of neighbors from Guardo and Leon.
José Luis Viñas
Lab 987
25 June- 11 September 2016
Ghost Community (Northern Palencia) is a project granted by Call for Proposal"s Lab 987.
Ghost Community (Northern Palencia) is a long-haul project initiated in 2004 by José Luis Viñas (Madrid, 1972). The work is the result of the artist’s long professional stay in Guardo (Palencia). He spent almost a decade in this de-industrialised area with a mining past. As in other regions of Castilla y León, coal mining underwent a phased and permanent "conversion process" which started at the beginning of the 1990s and brought ruin and a gradual deterioration of the area: depopulation, migration, abandonment of buildings and closing of shops.
Ghost Community reflects the impact of this process in the Palencia region of Alto Carrión, as well as in the artist, who witnessed it. Viñas depicts the social, demographic and industrial decline of the region through photographs, stories and collage drawings. Thus, he builds a personal and poetic atlas of the region, halfway between document and fiction. However, this atlas of economic and social erosion in the area is not Viña’s only goal. Beside the artistic works, the project explores in depth, claims and will incorporate the sensitivities of the people that embody those memories and experiences. In order to open to the community of Castilla and León, the proposal is presented by means of different approaches: besides having a project assistant who was born in the area, the researcher Sara Cano (Palencia. Santibáñez de la Peña, 1993), performing a Co-habiting experience of neighbors from Guardo and Leon.