Jordi Ferreiro IN RESiDENCE at the School Jaume Balmes

ACTIONS INSIDE THE CLASSROOM - WHO - 21/09/2020

One of the first sessions was a presentation of the members of the project. Rather than being a normal and regular presentation, the session is dedicated to who is going to become a space for reflection about who we are.

Pondering about our identity. In this case, we need to go beyond the classroom, as currently not only do we express our identity in flesh and bone, we also do so through social media, with images. One of the most surprising results of this session was the difference between the image that we have of ourselves in person and the one we have when we post on the wall.

Therefore, one of the activities that took place on that Monday dedicated to who was to show a photograph that represented them. Afterwards, and to go one step further in the reflection of image and identity, the students performed the task which they had to search for a photograph by a leading photographer and substitute the person they had photographed.

ACTIONS INSIDE THE CLASSROOM - WHERE - 28/09/2020

Another of the inseparable parts of our environment is a space. So, after reflecting on who we are, it was time to reflect on where we are. Sometimes we walk in the same place every day and even so we know hardly anything about it. In our case, even though the school's art classroom is the main place where this experience takes place, it was essential to scrutinise the entire school.

So, with the help of Albert Davi, the pedagogic coordinator of the centre, we went floor by floor through the building, and many of us discovered parts of the school that we had never seen and never knew existed, such as the Sick Room. And not only spaces, but also objects from the pedagogical archives linked to the place and which spoke to us of the functioning of the spaces and the history of the school.

ACTIONS WITHIN THE CLASSROOM - HOW- 5/10/2020

Beyond the who and the where, we have worked on the how. How did the things surrounding us come to be? To what extent are we involved? Through a game using tarot cards, we reflected on the abilities that everyone has to intervene in the environment, our weaknesses and our strengths, and also, how we faced the challenges in the past, how we face them in the present and how we can face them in the future.

To do this, after an explanation on the origins of the game, the activity consisted in creating and giving a name to one’s own tarot card, following the typical patterns of the game, for example, each card also has an inverted position. Doing a reading with our tarot cards to know what the In Residence project would be like would serve as a starting point on speculating about his subject.

COLLAGE - 16/11/2020 – 14/12/2020

After some time getting to know each other, during which we dedicated our efforts to reflecting on the school, ourselves, what we do and also how we do it; we then explored the world of collage.

The initial contacts with the technique were spontaneous and random, we played with the material through a series of exercises created to be done as a group or individually. We used newspapers, drawings, wefts, photographs, texts and we also worked on volume with the assemblage.

The collage and the assemblage provided us with tools for expression, beyond that of drawing, to express our personal experience and emotions of the COVID situation at the school.

MASH-UP SESSIONS - 12/01/2021 – 22/03/2021

The mash-up sessions were a long process which took place throughout the entire second term and even went beyond it. In January we began an investigation into the history of Balmes, from the perspective of the anxieties of the students and the artist. What do we know about our school, what don’t we know and what do we want to know? What was education like at Balmes 50 and 100 years ago? What do we think it will be like in 2072? To find the answers to our questions we interviewed staff at the school, and gradually began to “contaminate” and involve teachers, janitors and cleaning staff into our project.

We created two exhibits from the research, a virtual one and a physical one, which was placed in the corridors of several floors of the schools. We used blown-up old photographs of Balmes, posters and QR codes with the audios of the interviews. We invited the teaching staff and all the other groups from the school to visit the exhibit and share in the knowledge of the school.

Furthermore, during the sessions with the teaching staff they were able to continue working on the school and design an activity to be carried out with the Year 8 students about their impressions and expectations of the school, with the idea of sharing experiences between the Year 11 students and those of Year 8.

SELF-LED CLASSES - April 2021

After researching the history and past of the school, we considered what we ourselves could contribute to our education. What do we want to learn and what can we teach? It was with this question that we began the block of classes led by the students.

The students organised classes on make-up, sewing, drawing, poker, pottery, and other topics. These classes, designed and taught by the students, shared their passions and the activities they enjoy doing. At the beginning, the change in the teacher-student role generated a certain unease but afterwards, a certain empowerment on behalf of the student.

THE BORDER OF IN RESIDENCE - 17/05/2021

We did not see each other's faces until the end of the course. The smiles hidden under the face mask did not see the light of day until a photo session with the photographer Eva Carasol. (Obviously with the necessary safety distances and measures.)

The students from Year 11 will start a new phase in the next academic year, with emotion and also uncertainty. We finished the course by saying farewell with a photo with and without our face masks, so that we would remember this “exceptional” course for the rest of our lives. 

ACTIONS OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM: Visit to CASA ELIZALDE - 15/03/2021

Visit to the Fina Miralles exhibition, Fertile Words. That day we observed, walked, read, drew and shared thoughts about our roots with nature and female artists.

DANSA QUINZENA METROPOLITANA - 10/03/2021

Connection between In Residence and Dansa Quinzena Metropolitana.

Hidden is the last part of the trilogy by the Lali Ayguadé Company, which talks about identity, the things that define us but have become hidden under the veil of the unconscious. 

Lali Ayguadé, dancer, choreographer and creator of Hidden, explained the process behind the creation of the piece, how it combines the abstraction of movement with emotion, and the link between what is real and specifically with the imagination.

 

“When did you decide to take up dancing? What have you studied to get this far? Do you also dance in the works that you direct?” These were some of the questions asked by the students.

It was very interesting to see the parallels between the research process from a dance perspective and our investigation process from a visual arts perspective. Brainstorming, improvisation, the occasional block, trial and error, these are things that are common to the creative processes.

PREPARATION OF THE EXHIBITION - May and June 2021

During the final phase of the residence, we asked ourselves what we wanted to show from the entire process and we decided to prepare an exhibition as the close. What do we want to exhibit? How do we want to exhibit it? What has been the most interesting and significant aspect for us? Why?

The students decided what they wanted to exhibit and how they wanted to explain it in the presentation, which would be as a guided tour. Jordi worked on the design part of the exhibit, the production of glass and slate pieces and borrowing objects from the educational archives.

It was going to be very exciting for the group to be able to exhibit at Casa Elizalde, because when they visited Elizalde a few months previously, few imagined that they would be exhibiting here. What caused the biggest impact was to see their names on the exhibition sheet.