Preview of the LABoral Programme for 2013
The Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial (Gijón) will strengthen research and the production of work through artist residencies and work groups. The resulting projects will be shown in exhibitions and workshops
Tarnac, by Joachim Olender, work that will be on show in 'Realidad elástica'. Photo: LABoral
Strengthening research and the production of new work on the basis of calls for artist residencies and work groups is one of the cornerstones of the LABoral programme throughout 2013. In accordance with the Action Plan for next year, approved by the Board of Trustees of the La Laboral Foundation during its meeting this Tuesday 18 December, the Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial in Gijón will invite artists and developers to utilise the spaces and technical resources available to them, in many cases, through the public calls. New works will emerge from this which will subsequently be shown in the various exhibition rooms at LABoral as a precursor to their travelling to other national and international spaces. In other cases, the outcome from the residencies will lead to workshops and presentations in which the creators present the results from their research to different audiences.
This line aims to consolidate the work achieved by the art centre since its beginnings and which reached its greatest expression in 2012 with the production of large site-specific installations such as Datamatics. data.tecture [5 SXGA+ version] by Japanese Ryoji Ikeda, who will shortly be presenting an evolution of this work at the Espacio de Fundación Telefónica in Madrid. This is also the case of n-Polytope. Behaviors in Light and Sound after Iannis Xenakis by North American artist Chris Salter, a contemporary re-imagining of the Greek composer and architect’s radical architectural environments. For this production by LABoral, which will shortly be shown in Germany, Salter received an honourable mention from VIDA 14.0, the International Art and Artificial Life Competition by the Telefónica Foundation. Another production by LABoral, the show eCLIPSe. [retro]perspectiva en 50 fases del vídeo musical [retro]perspective of the music video in 50 steps], will be exhibited at the Centro Fundación Telefónica in Lima in the autumn of 2013.
As it complete its first five years of activity, LABoral enters 2013 in a new development phase with a programme aimed at further deepen ing its exploration of new formats for creative thinking, knowledge sharing and the production of new work. Dedicated since its inception to the new cultural forms resulting from the omnipresent internet and the prevailing information society, the Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial [Centre of Art and Industrial Creation in Gijón] will develop its activities programme across the different areas of research, production, education and exhibition.
In the words of its Activities Director Benjamin Weil, “The aim is that LABoral becomes more and more a resource for the artistic community and visitors, transcending the concept of a conventional exhibition centre, something which it has never been”. “To this end,” he adds, “in the design of the activities programme, we kept in mind that our objective is getting the different publics to become users, and that the actual space and its equipment are conceived as a workplace connected to creative industries, research, production, training and the dynamization of archives, as well as a place to visit”.
Thematic Axes
With the common denominators of Art, science and new technologies, all of LABoral’s activity will be centred on four thematic axes:
- Digital design and fabrication. Via fabLAB Asturias, based on fabLAB Asturias, the digital fabrication laboratory at LABoral, a space for production, research and development. fabLAB Asturias has a specialised training programme which provides first-hand knowledge of the processes and systems in which technology is an essential element.
- Experimenal electronics and software
Using advanced electronic design and prototyping equipment together with specialised software, LABoral proposes a research and training programme based on Open Source. - Territory: local, heritage, community. Since its opening, LABoral has pursued a line of work which focused on territory, understood as the physical environment and as the outcome of the action taken by various agents. The Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial seeks to place significance on the local context and generate spaces for exchanging information with the purpose of fostering dynamic relationships between the artistic, creative and business communities in Asturias with the rest of Spain and the world.
- New spaces, formats and tools for participation. In contrast to the idea of a traditional museum as a closed container, there is a commitment to encouraging a more permeable and open institution which connects a participating community working in the new forms of production, exhibition and archives.
RESEARCH, PRODUCTION, EXHIBITION
15.03.2013 – 08.09.2013
Realidad elástica [Elastic Reality]
- Exhibition and production residency within the programme: Más allá de la exposición: nuevas interfaces para el arte contemporáneo en Europa [Beyond the Exhibition: New Interfaces for Contemporary Art in Europe]
Digitial technology is a factor leading to innovation, economic development and progress in the everyday life of citizens and introduces a paradigm shift that needs to be quickly assimilated in the fields of education, culture and knowledge transfer. Más allá de la exposición [Beyond the Exhibition] is a project co-produced by LABoral with Le Fresnoy Studio National des Arts Contemporains (France) and the Contemporary Art Center, CAC Vilnius (Lithuania), which is funded by the European Union. It comprises an exhibition, a residency, two screening cycles and a seminar. As a whole, it addresses the establishment of new cultural habits since the digital revolution and how these have changed access to works of art. For the new generations of “digital natives” the screen, as the dominant medium, has become the favourite tool in their relationship with culture. Similarly, the evolution of artistic forms, normally associated with the concept of interactivity, practices which tend to be formally unstable and of an ephemeral nature, will be analysed.
Artists: Théodora Barat, Veronique Beland, Pierre-Yves Boisramé, Vincent Ciciliato, Joachim Olender, Zahra Poonawala, David Rokeby and Dorothéé Smith
Productions: Maya Da-Rin (residence at LABoral)
Re-Stage: Ryoichi Kurokawa
Prototipos e interfaces [Prototypes and Interfaces]
- Seminar included in the programme: Más allá de la exposición: nuevas interfaces para el arte contemporáneo en Europa [Beyond the Exhibition: New Interfaces for Contemporary Art in Europe]
A new exhibition format arising from technological possibilities inevitably leads to formal rethinking on traditional mechanisms. This seminar will attempt to challenge the actual idea of exhibition considering it to be a space where art is experienced, and where visitors are at the centre of the device with their experience completing the work, which is incomplete in their absence.
14.01.2013 – 29.09.2013
Universo Vídeo. Prácticas experimentales [Experimental Practices]
- Exhibition and Research on Archives
LABoral recovers Universo vídeo, a proposal that set out on an investigation into video art in 2011. In 2013, the Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial in Gijón extends this reflection on the use and distribution of archives at its Mediateca Expandida [Expanded Mediatheque], an experimental space with new forms of delivering and accessing art, which are capable of extending the limits of the conventional exhibition.
Universo vídeo will present four screening cycles from the collections of the Asturian Artists Archive and other archives including the Gijón International Film Festival, which is part of the resources at Medicateca_Archivo. Also present will be a selection of the video-graphic catalogue of Fresnoy, the training, research and production centre for audiovisual creation, located in Tourcoing, France, with which LABoral is collaborating in a European project, Más allá de la exposición: nuevas interfaces para el arte contemporáneo en Europa [Beyond the Exhibition: New Interfaces for Contemporary Art in Europe].
17.01.2013-10.03.2013. filMO
14.03.2013 - 28.04.2013. Le Fresnoy I
02.05.2013 - 16.06.2013. Le Fresnoy II
20.06.2013 - 29.09.2013. Usos y formas
March 2013
Next Things 2013
- Call for Proposals and Production Residency
Second edition of the proposal call jointly promoted by LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial in Gijón and Telefónica Research and Development, a company in the Telefónica group. Its aim is to select a project linking art and technology, unleashing the enormous potential that lies in the mixing of creativity and the vision of artists. As in the previous call, Next Things looks for innovative projects in the area of of the Internet of Things. This year it is applied to the connection between spaces and objects through its data capture and communication capabilities.
14.06.2013 – 15.09.2013
Coleccionismo de creación [Creation Collecting]
- Documentation and Exhibition
This project, curated by Joan Fontcuberta and sponsored by Banco Herrero, presents the transit of creation collecting to creation as collecting. The artists presented in this exhibition renounce creating new images, and so no longer contributing to the iconic oversaturation inflicted on us, and as an alternative, manage to recycle existing and recurring images.
Artists: Eve Cadieux (Canada, 1974); Martin Parr (United Kingdom, 1952); Erik Kessels (Netherlands, 1966); Joachim Schmid (Germany, 1955); Penelope Umbrico (United States, 1957); Hans Eijkelboom (Netherlands, 1949); Emilio Chapela Pérez (Mexico, 1978); Jean-Gabriel Périot (France, 1974); Eric Tabuchi (France, 1959)
21.06. 2013 – 22.09.2013
Production Grant DKV Seguros-Álvarez Margaride
- Call for Proposals, Production Residency and Exhibition
The objective of this yearly call is to grant a production residency for the completion of a project by artists who are either Spanish or resident in Spain, born in or after 1971. The results of this residency will be brought to fruition in an exhibition at LABoral to take place at the Galería de Proyectos [Projects Gallery] between 21 June and 22 September 2013. The resulting work from the residency will be acquired for the collection at DKV Seguros, the co-producer of the piece.
This call pays homage to the figure of José Luis Álvarez Margaride, born in Gijón and president of the Spanish subsidiary of DKV Seguros until his death in 2010, for his commitment to business in Asturias and his interest in art, culture and scientific research.
11.10.2013 – 02.2014
LABjoven_Experimenta
David Martínez Suárez. Inercia
- Call for Proposals, Production Residency and Exhibition
Inercia [Inertia] is the winning project of the LABjoven_Experimenta, the joint call for proposals by LABoral and the Instituto Asturiano de la Juventud [Asturian Youth Institute] aimed at artists or collectives, born or resident in the Principality of Asturias, or up the second generation of descendants of Asturian emigrants, aged 35 or under. This award, which now celebrates its sixth edition, is dedicated to experimental artistic projects (installations, multimedia installations, actions, interventions and any other creative process) specifically conceived for its exhibition at LABoral Centro de Arte.
According to the artist, Inercia alludes to the actual physics definition of inertia, which is the resistance of any physical object to a change in its state of rest or motion. The piece relates to the disturbances in various European countries in the wake of the Euro financial crisis, most notably in Greece and Spain. The work is an installation structured around three elements: the re-editing of the film Streets of Fire (1984), directed by Walter Hill; videogames, in particular first-person shooter ones; and a series of moulds based on the Jhon-117 character in the Halo video game.
18.10.2013 – 13.03.2014
Aprendiendo de las cuencas (provisional title)
- Documentation, production and exhibition, linked to the Agile Architecture project
Aprendiendo de las cuencas [Learning from “las cuencas”] is a research and exhibition project on the cultural landscape of the Asturian coal-mining areas, curated by Nacho Ruiz Allén and Sara López Arraiza of Zon-e Arquitectos. The exhibition seeks to go beyond the traditionally reviled image of this industrial area in Asturias where the concentration of mining activity and iron and steel works dramatically and inevitably transformed its immediate surroundings due to the demands of economic profitability. The show proposes a significant recovery of all of these cultural landscapes and is part of a new line of practical research by LABoral, Agile Architecture. This is rooted in technological and sustainable innovation and its possible contribution to the social development of its environment by drawing on the potentiality of ephemeral architecture.
All Year 2013
TheDrone
Plataforma 0. Production Centre at LABoral is carrying out a research programme, TheDrone, linking digital fabrication, electronic design and experimental software design, as well as data visualisation and interface design. With the use of open electronics and open source software, automated aerial apparatus, known as UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) will be designed and fabricated. Throughout 2013 different stages of the project will be completed, including the implementation of systems that allow for programming automated flight routes, collecting environmental data, and adding on devices such as a HD camera to film moving images from aerial views.
TheDrone includes workshops which deal with questions relating to the theory and practice of the aerodynamic design of drones based on propellers (quadricopter), winged and zeppelin; use of open source electronics, flight data visualisation systems and information collection.
EDUCATION
In the area of education, LABoral serves as a space for artistic research by training and the spreading of knowledge with the ultimate aim of fostering areas of critical participation based around the key issues in contemporary society.
The educational programme revolves around the following areas:
Professional programme
1. Digital design and fabrication
- Introductory courses on the use of fabLAB
Initiation courses in design and the most advanced digital fabrication processes centred on the design and development and building of prototypes in different materials, analysing in particular the steps in the change from computer model to the creation of each prototype.
Date: March 2013 and November 2013
- Specific courses on fabrication techniques
Learning how to use digital fabrication machines and techniques. Framed within the programme strands and linked to the residencies and research projects: architecture, digital fabrication, rapid prototyping, real-time video systems and data visualization.
. Production and Design Tools workshop. This workshop is developed within the framework of the Trastienda project and analyses the potential offered to us by the internet in terms of ideation, production and product distribution.
. Course on digital fabrication techniques in architecture. Research on new narrative devices, as part of Agile Architecture
Date: to be set
- Open Doors at fabLAB
Advisory services for those artists and groups developing any projects in the fields of digital fabrication and electronics.
Date: every Thursday
- Summer Meeting: AccionLAB (as part of Agile Architecture)
Meeting of architects, programmers, designers and creators in general for collaborative development of projects. This production camp serves as a meeting, socialising and knowledge-sharing place for professionals from different disciplines who are invited to work on mechanisms for new narratives within a new institutional model and appropriation of public space and the re-use of urban voids.
Date: July 2013
2. Experimental electronics and software
- Experimental electronics and music workshops. Free tools use and building and DIY.
Focused on the local community of artists and electronic musicians interested in carrying out a complete project which starts with prototyping and developing their own electronics and understanding the use of sensors and actuators, then moves onto the programming of their sound events - all of this from an experimental approach. The project will be presented to the public by the end of the workshop period. Date: January and September 2013
- Drone design, fabrication and technology
This series of workshops forms part of the fabLAB Asturias research project on the development of a Drone, an unmanned aerial vehicle, capable of collecting audiovisual and environmental data which can be used by artists and researchers for the development of visualisations, streaming and other interactions.
Date: June and October 2013
School programme
1. Experimental programme on school dropout prevention, in collaboration with the Directorate General for Professional Training, Curriculum Development and Educational Innovation at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport of the Principality of Asturias. Its aim is to build new learning spaces through research projects, and to promote a change in the organisational and curriculum model. Subject areas: design and new production models, audio-visuals and an introduction to creative computer programming.
Date: academic school year 2012-13 and 2013-14
- Summer camp: AuLAB Experimental
Within the framework of the school dropout prevention programme, a structure in thematic nodes based on the lines of work that are being carried out during the school year is proposed: digital design and fabrication, an introduction to creative programming and experimental television.
Date: last week of June / 1st week of July 2013.
2. Educational programme in collaboration with CIFP La Laboral, Gijón. This programme is developed at two levels:
- A collaborative project whose outcome will affect the educational centre itself, targeting intermediate-level students: design and production of the centre’s signage; furniture design and production.
- Development of project design and production utilising the fabLAB research model which allows for modifying and evaluating the results from the very moment the project is conceived, aimed Technical Degree students.
3. Educational programme in collaboration with ESAPA- Escuela Superior de Arte del Principado de Asturias
- Prototype fabrication session
2º year product design students build their prototypes in fabLAB as a practical activity of the Materials and Fabrication Processes subject, getting first-hand practice at digital fabrication.
Date: from 8 to 11 January 2013
4. Urban camps on robotics. Led by Educated
Educational robotics is a tool which allows children from an early age to build their own knowledge, leading them by their hands to scientific knowledge. It facilitates their learning in a practical, simple and stimulating way and makes them feel like a creator and researcher, and not solely a consumer of knowledge. The logic of computer programming and debugging fosters the development of intellectual resources that will prove very useful in the future.
Date: 02.01.2013 – 04.01.2013
02.07.2013 – 27.07.2013 (to be confirmed)
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
05.10.2012 – 25.02.2013
Presencia activa [Active Presence]
Acción, objeto y público [Action, Object and Audience]
Actions and installations as artistic disciplines are a mirror image of each other. In fact, both are based on the same principle of presence; of active presence. In performance art, the presence of the artist; in installation art, that of the spectator. In this way of being reflected in each other, installations and performances move in opposite and overlapping directions, creating an axis between two poles –the artist and the spectator– along which there are infinite possibilities of interaction.
Active Presence. Action, Object and Audience presents works —most of which are new productions specifically created for this project— that gain significance at this juncture. Performance and installation converge into a diverse landscape of dynamic installations activated by the artists and/or the public within the museum’s gallery walls. We can find, on the one hand, works in which the audience takes a more passive role, and on the other hand, installations whose existence depends on their participation. There are also pieces that function in both domains. And in all of them we perceive a unique territory: a place in between genres with stratified relationships uncommon to the practice of pure installation or performance art.
Curators: Sergio Edelsztein, Director, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv, and Kathleen Forde, Artistic Director of Borusan Contemporary
Artists: Maja Bajević, John Bock, Gary Hill, Thom Kubli, Mads Lynnerup, Alastair MacLennan, Sergio Prego, Gema Ramos, La Ribot, Carlos Rodríguez-Méndez, Nerea Santisteban Lorences
Coproduction: LABoral and MARCO. Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo [Contemporary Art Museum in Vigo]
With the support of: Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. Secretaría de Estado de Cultura [Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport. Culture State Department]
In collaboration with: Club Metropolitan, AEPA-Asociación de Empresas de Producción Audiovisual del Principado de Asturias; Restaurante Las Delicias; Pronorte; Sidra El Gobernador; Bilur 2000, S.L.; Blue Hoteles; EMULSA
Space: Galería de exposiciones [Exhibition Gallery and Hall], Sala de Proyectos [Projects Room], Sala Nueva [New Room] and in the lobby and main hall of LABoral
26.10.2012 – 04.02.2013
Feather Tales II
An installation by Ricardo O'Nascimento and Ebru Kurbak
A project chosen in the 2011 proposal call by the Oficina de Proyectos [Projects Office]. Feather Tales II is a work in progress by two artists using clothing items as a form of communication and protection, placing them at the centre of research work which links up design and fashion.
The work which Ricardo O’Nascimento and Ebru Kurbak present following their artist residencies at LABoral is a sensitive and interactive environment that arose from an imaginary scenario in which a secretive dialogue between electromagnetic waves and their material surroundings becomes vaguely visible, and consequently captivating. The surfaces in the exhibition space that are covered by feathers become hypersensitive to waves emitted by mobile communication devices. Whenever electronic signals haunt the space the surfaces start to show involuntary reactions, giving visitors the opportunity to interact with the environment using their own devices.
28.04. 2011 / ongoing
crear bosques [creating forests]
crear bosques (Piñera, Asturias 1996–2011) is a participative art action, representing a monument and at once a society. The action consists of the compilation of sponsorship applications, the management of the action –with the key involvement of museums, art centres, collectives and NGOs– and the planting, reverting to an objectual format by its transformation into a location map that allows sponsors to visit their tree should they so wish.
Project Director: Carmen Cantón
Coproduction: EMULSA-Empresa Municipal de Servicios de Medio Ambiente Urbano de Gijón S.A. [Municipal Company for the Urban Environment of Gijón]
Organisation: crear bosques & Centro de Arte Ego
Curator: Lucía Antonini
In collaboration with: MAV-Mujeres en las Artes Visuales [Women in the Visual Arts], FAPAS-Fondo para la Protección de los Animales Salvajes [Fund for the Protection of Wild Animals], Space Invaders, Guerrilla Girls
Opening times of LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and bank holidays, from 10 am to 7 pm
Saturday and Sunday, from 12 noon to 8 pm
Monday and Tuesday, closed to the public (except public holidays)
The centre is closed on the following days: 1 and 6 January, 24, 25 and 31 December
Access to the exhibition rooms is restricted 15 minutes before the centre closes.
