Visit the Kara Walker exhibition with a silhouette workshop aimed at exploring how images shape our perception of the world and history, while reflecting on our own identity within that context and creating a work that dialogues between the personal and the collective, between the individual and the historical.

Organized by Explicarte Association.

Imagining the FUTURE with SEMPERE

We were coming from the previous session, MutaPlantas, very pleased with the feeling of having discovered the concept of "myths of the future", "Fed up already with past mythologies, we propose a future mythology, to dream with…" we said in the previous report. And that pushed us to continue in this session with that idea, because talking about desirable futures is a proactive attitude towards change, and if the fabulation of the mythical origin of things helps us understand the present, imagining retroactively the path towards the future from a myth created within 500 years, which looks at the past (our present) and mythically fabulates its present (our future)… it can be a very powerful tool of speculative fiction!

–But how do we do it? –we asked ourselves.

The "hall of mirrors" and kinetic art

This session was going to be special, because it coincided with the DIM – International Museum Day. And to hold a session focused on the interior of the museum, we decided at the time that it would be on its 3rd floor, where the kinetic sculptures of Eusebio Sempere rest. "The hall of mirrors", we said. We had already talked about the oval that floats in the museum's vestibule in the Arborescent session, fabulating its changing reflections and its geometry of rods repeated in space. So on this occasion we decided that the attendees would create myths that look towards the future using the qualities of kinetic art as a creative activator. Kinetic art or kineticism is an artistic movement that integrates physical-spatial movement as a compositional element: the real physical movement of the work, the movement of the eye over the piece and the physical movement of the spectator cause the works to transform, change their appearance and their relationship with space. They also use light as a plastic element, transform it and use it to create spatial effects and transform the surrounding space, and the phenomenon of optical perception creating visual rhythms, the superposition of ambiguous geometric forms and dynamic luminous perception. Furthermore, Eusebio Sempere has a very special relationship with the museum: his donation of a contemporary art collection was the trigger for converting the old Casa de la Asegurada into the current Museum of Contemporary Art of Alicante. Sempere almost made the museum appear with the works he brought with him, he placed them in a place and around them a Museum grew (with architectural reforms and later expansions). That image of the power of a work of art not only to transform the surrounding space, but to create it! was wonderful, so we began there!

In the previous session of Arborescentes we were left wanting to talk about the small plants that emerge freely from cracks and hard-to-clean corners. So much monumental ficus and so little brave weeds drove us to dedicate the following session to them, to the VIP plants! (very important plants). We tell you how we went about it.

Why are plants that grow in asphalt cracks important?

Plants that grow in asphalt cracks in cities are not only symbols of biological resistance, but also key agents within new approaches to urban biodiversity.

To rethink urban plants not as "green waste" but as living agents that claim their place, we must understand that preserving the wild is not just about protecting distant forests, but also respecting a crack where life springs forth.

They constitute spontaneous laboratories of life and evolution. They are "zones of freedom," where vegetation grows without direct human intervention.

They play an essential role as green micro-corridors. They act as connectors between fragments of dispersed urban habitats, allowing the flow of species—from pollinating insects to soil microorganisms.

Urban biodiversity depends on these unplanned spaces. The biodiversity that these plants provide increases ecological resilience.

"VIP Plants" as cultural and social mediators: A novel reading of these plants is to understand them as cultural and social mediators. Their presence challenges the traditional narrative of human control over urban nature and proposes an aesthetic of disorder that invites us to rethink city design. Rather than eradicating these spontaneous manifestations, we could integrate them into a new model of urbanism that accepts the unplanned, fostering a more flexible and ethical relationship between the built and the living. This approach can be connected with recent concepts such as the right to the wild in the city.

Alicante has 36 specimens of monumental ficus trees considered part of its heritage. They are living monuments that leave us amazed with their majestic canopies and impressive columns made of roots.

In this session of the Mitolatorio we reclaim the city's arboreal heritage, we highlight its value through the invention of contemporary myths and performative games that build experiences and awaken love for these magical beings that coexist with us. Shall we create an arborescent route?.

We will explore the work of Esther Ferrer, with special attention to her self-portraits. Through the embroidery technique we will use threads to intervene in our photographs by creating self-portraits full of creativity and personal meaning. Together we will explore themes such as identity, self-expression, and the connection between art and the body.

This tour presents the museum through play and the activation of the senses. Children will explore the corners and works of the Maca, interacting with pieces by artists such as Joan Miró, Pablo Gragallo and Eusebio Sempere.

The MACA proposes workshops around Bruno Munari's exhibition that aim to experiment and work freely with materials. The workshop becomes a celebration and the work becomes a whole discovery. The idea is that the free and creative spirit endures after the workshops.

It is an activity to enjoy as a family (+ 6 years old), or adults alone. It is free and will take place on Saturdays in July, and Saturdays in September at 11 o'clock.

BRUNO MUNARI'S WORKSHOPS

Bruno Munari proposed in 1977 for the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan some workshops titled Giocare con l'arte (Playing with Art) where he encouraged children to observe different artistic movements and experiment with techniques and materials. Color, shape and textures became work tools and made children show greater predisposition to observe the displayed works. Later, Munari repeated the experience by conducting workshops that he called Laboratories, in which greater relevance was given to the process rather than the final result.

Saturday, May 19th began with a trip through the MACA, where through a theatrical visit the youngest visitors were able to understand the true meaning of a museum and its role in society.

Kiki, Velázquez, a human statue in the purest informal style or a replica of Le Parc's work served as guides to the visitors during the journey.

The last stop was Plaza de Santa María, where visitors created a collective mural in which each one expressed their own idea of a museum.

From the MACA we want to thank Explicarte and VDH Comunicación for their collaboration in making this activity possible, but above all to the travelers who wanted to accompany us during this adventure.

The Mitolatorio began its journey in April 2020. During the pandemic, it functioned as a digital collaborative map of contemporary myths. It was a way to stay connected with the outside world, redefining public space from our homes.

One of the pillars of the Mitolatorio has always been urban redefinition, because reviewing our emotions about public space empowers us within it, because paying special attention to it makes us more aware of its peculiarities, and it helps us value all elements of the public and urban landscape by placing on the same

level the architectural (a building with an emblematic façade), the vegetal (the tree in the plaza where we played) and the human (the neighbor who always sat on the same park bench), among others. We believe that this perspective can become

radical in an unexpected way if it is carried out from the perspective of a work from the Museum previously seen, smelled, and creatively discussed.

The mediation of the works and places will be based on carrying out creative actions with them as objects, to promote critical and expanded observation of the work and subjective, bodily and also critical exploration of

urban space. To the significant power of the work-place binomial we thus add two contributions: that of the practices of mediated plastic creation from the workshops and laboratories of María Maraña, and that of the techniques of proprioceptive exploration and identity fabulation from the interactive practices of Sergi Hernández.

In this session of the mythological workshop we stayed at the MACA to visit the temporary exhibition on floor 1: "Now the rush remained still. Abstract experiences around Manolo Millares". In this exhibition, curated by Rosa Castells, we can see works created in a more abstract context, from the pioneers of the avant-garde in Paris to Spanish informalists, among whom the work of Canarian artist Manolo Millares stands out. For the visit we designed a playful experience that invites observation, imagination, critical thinking and reflection from the subjectivities of each participant.

We are interested in this encounter between the general public, diverse and intergenerational, and the museum. We believe it is important to break prejudices about how and who has the right to enjoy art. Can we only appreciate art if we are experts in the subject? Is it necessary for the observer to know the historical context of the work/artist to activate their thinking?

There are no rules for enjoying a work of art, what is essential is the capacity for observation and wonder. These are capacities that are nourished by knowledge, but they begin with attitude.