Paso de Gigantes, by Cristina Ferrández, is a project produced during a two-week production residency at LABoral, as a contribution of the Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial to the Festival Miradas de Mujeres 2014.

In Pasos de Gigantes, a figure appears that refers to the Angel of History that Walter Benjamin spoke of in his Thesis on the Philosophy of History. The figure, anchored in the fog, seems to seek a stable position with a view to carrying out an analysis of contemporaneity based on a critique of the idea of progress.

After a visit to the video installation, this panel discussion will reflect on the idea of progress conceived as a temporal norm in the progress of history. From different perspectives such as art theory, philosophy, architecture, journalism or artistic practice itself, we will start with the study of certain examples in Asturian cartography. All of them are enclaves linked to the transformations of the landscape resulting from the proliferation of large public works infrastructures, today in a state of suspension, as well as the study of singular cultural, scientific or social buildings that have also been abandoned.

Participants: Luis Feás, art critic and editor of the magazine Atlántica XXII; Xuan Cándano, Director of Atlántica XII; Juan Carlos Gea, writer and art critic; Charo Hernández, writer; CSOA La Madreña, collective for citizen recovery for social purposes that occupies the building of the former Health Department of Asturias; Cristina Ferrández Box, artist and author of the video-installation that gave rise to this activity; Federico Sáez, architect, CEMPA, Centre for Environmental Studies of the Principality of Asturias; and Lluís Álvarez, Professor of Aesthetics, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oviedo.
Moderator: Alfredo Aracil, Head of Outreach, LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial