Andrea Acosta
04 Sep - 12 Oct 2014
ANDREA ACOSTA
Manual de uso
4 September - 12 October 2014
Sala Rekalde presents Manual de Uso by the artist Andrea Acosta (Bogotá, 1981), the first project in the Basque Country by the platform Nuevos Comanditarios. The platform, created in France 20 years ago, invites artist to undertake projects in response to the desires and needs expressed by the civil society.
Once you cross Bilbao’s Euskalduna bridge, you naturally think that the city ends there. Especially if you are carrying a map from the tourist office, which literally cuts the city off at this point. It is difficult to imagine that beyond this wasteland the city continues to extend out for another 2.5 km, into two neighbourhoods called Ribera de Deusto and Zorrozaurre that occupy a long, thin peninsula. Many years ago, this land was part of Anteiglesia de Deusto, but it was decided to open a passage to make boat traffic easier and avoid flooding. It was never finished; the old riverside became a lively peninsula filled with workshops and factories. Until the onset of the industrial crisis. Since the 1980s, various masterplans have suggested comprehensive reconstruction work. The latest fits perfectly in with the modernising, aseptic and bright image that Bilbao has been constructing in recent years, attempting to deny that its historical foundations are rooted in soot powder, foundry furnaces, mines and shipyards.
As it awaits the destruction and rebuilding that might never come, the peninsula sees its buildings deteriorating, nature growing in its sites; it sees its ruins being occupied, fishermen setting their rods on its banks, neighbours grilling sardines at parties, graffiti invading its walls; it sees warehouses being filled with theatres and creative companies; its sees quite a few people leaving, some others arriving, and in the distance, a great many inhabitants of Bilbao who have never set foot on its soil, frightened by its lack of perfection.
But in fact the peninsula is one of the best examples of how cities transform. Bilbao’s memory is guarded today in such spaces, difficult to read because of their complexity, which display a language full of contradictions and contrasts. This complexity provides us with a chance to extrapolate what we see in it, because it might specifically refer to the city’s history, but it simultaneously presents us with a global city vocabulary, reflecting the clashes between nature and construction, between function and use. The peninsula speaks to us of itself, and of many other places that are transformed. Its language has the ability to be local and global at the same time.
Commissioned by a group of locals interested in postindustrial spaces, artist Andrea Acosta tries to convey that language to us, through syllables, words and phrases that are objects, traces and streets. Her work provides us with keys to interpretation, encouraging exploration and the search for other hidden treasures, for diverse urban occupation and alternative usage. In general, it reveals to us the presence of a forgotten, neglected memory, as well as some spaces with history and great possibilities for future intertwining in their architectural, historical, social and plant languages.
But above all, Acosta's work provides us with the opportunity to reflect on how we contemplate and experience the city; it suggests to us a new way of building by gazing at these places, reeducating the manner we observe to cleanse it of what we have learned and be able to read the formal and historical languages that the city presents us in all its spaces.
ANDREA ACOSTA (Bogotá, 1981) lives and works in Berlin. She got her BA in Arts by the University of the Andes in Bogotá (2005) and a MFA in Art in Public S ace and New Artistic Strategies by the Bauhaus Universität in Weimar, Germany (2008). She has developed projects in public spaces, exhibitions and publications in Germany, Austria, Begium, Colombia, South Korea, Spain, France and Russia. She has also participated in artistic residecies such as Le Pavillon, Experimental Lab of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France (2010) hand has been awarded with scholarships, such as the Graduiertenförderung des Freistaates Thüringen in 2009, and prizes, like the Bauhaus Hochschule Preis (2008).
The New patrons action initiated by the Fondation de France allows citizens facing society or territory development issues, to share their concerns with contemporary artists by commissioning a work. Its originality is based on a new connection between three privileged actors: the artist, the commissioning citizen and the cultural mediator approved by the Fondation de France, accompanied by the public and private partners gathered around the project. In the Basque Country, New patrons is developed by Artehazia. Manual de Uso has been mediated by Haizea Barcenilla. The patrons for this project are Andrea García Crespo, Aloña Intxaurrandieta, Ismael Manterola and Mikel Martínez Vítores. www.nouveauxcommanditaires.eu
Manual de uso
4 September - 12 October 2014
Sala Rekalde presents Manual de Uso by the artist Andrea Acosta (Bogotá, 1981), the first project in the Basque Country by the platform Nuevos Comanditarios. The platform, created in France 20 years ago, invites artist to undertake projects in response to the desires and needs expressed by the civil society.
Once you cross Bilbao’s Euskalduna bridge, you naturally think that the city ends there. Especially if you are carrying a map from the tourist office, which literally cuts the city off at this point. It is difficult to imagine that beyond this wasteland the city continues to extend out for another 2.5 km, into two neighbourhoods called Ribera de Deusto and Zorrozaurre that occupy a long, thin peninsula. Many years ago, this land was part of Anteiglesia de Deusto, but it was decided to open a passage to make boat traffic easier and avoid flooding. It was never finished; the old riverside became a lively peninsula filled with workshops and factories. Until the onset of the industrial crisis. Since the 1980s, various masterplans have suggested comprehensive reconstruction work. The latest fits perfectly in with the modernising, aseptic and bright image that Bilbao has been constructing in recent years, attempting to deny that its historical foundations are rooted in soot powder, foundry furnaces, mines and shipyards.
As it awaits the destruction and rebuilding that might never come, the peninsula sees its buildings deteriorating, nature growing in its sites; it sees its ruins being occupied, fishermen setting their rods on its banks, neighbours grilling sardines at parties, graffiti invading its walls; it sees warehouses being filled with theatres and creative companies; its sees quite a few people leaving, some others arriving, and in the distance, a great many inhabitants of Bilbao who have never set foot on its soil, frightened by its lack of perfection.
But in fact the peninsula is one of the best examples of how cities transform. Bilbao’s memory is guarded today in such spaces, difficult to read because of their complexity, which display a language full of contradictions and contrasts. This complexity provides us with a chance to extrapolate what we see in it, because it might specifically refer to the city’s history, but it simultaneously presents us with a global city vocabulary, reflecting the clashes between nature and construction, between function and use. The peninsula speaks to us of itself, and of many other places that are transformed. Its language has the ability to be local and global at the same time.
Commissioned by a group of locals interested in postindustrial spaces, artist Andrea Acosta tries to convey that language to us, through syllables, words and phrases that are objects, traces and streets. Her work provides us with keys to interpretation, encouraging exploration and the search for other hidden treasures, for diverse urban occupation and alternative usage. In general, it reveals to us the presence of a forgotten, neglected memory, as well as some spaces with history and great possibilities for future intertwining in their architectural, historical, social and plant languages.
But above all, Acosta's work provides us with the opportunity to reflect on how we contemplate and experience the city; it suggests to us a new way of building by gazing at these places, reeducating the manner we observe to cleanse it of what we have learned and be able to read the formal and historical languages that the city presents us in all its spaces.
ANDREA ACOSTA (Bogotá, 1981) lives and works in Berlin. She got her BA in Arts by the University of the Andes in Bogotá (2005) and a MFA in Art in Public S ace and New Artistic Strategies by the Bauhaus Universität in Weimar, Germany (2008). She has developed projects in public spaces, exhibitions and publications in Germany, Austria, Begium, Colombia, South Korea, Spain, France and Russia. She has also participated in artistic residecies such as Le Pavillon, Experimental Lab of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France (2010) hand has been awarded with scholarships, such as the Graduiertenförderung des Freistaates Thüringen in 2009, and prizes, like the Bauhaus Hochschule Preis (2008).
The New patrons action initiated by the Fondation de France allows citizens facing society or territory development issues, to share their concerns with contemporary artists by commissioning a work. Its originality is based on a new connection between three privileged actors: the artist, the commissioning citizen and the cultural mediator approved by the Fondation de France, accompanied by the public and private partners gathered around the project. In the Basque Country, New patrons is developed by Artehazia. Manual de Uso has been mediated by Haizea Barcenilla. The patrons for this project are Andrea García Crespo, Aloña Intxaurrandieta, Ismael Manterola and Mikel Martínez Vítores. www.nouveauxcommanditaires.eu