PROYECTO BRIDGE AND RACE 2005

The objective of this project was to experiment with a new method for bringing contemporary art to students in rural areas, through the experience of the artists themselves and using the contents of the open air museum as a bridge between cultural institutions and schools.

For the project, the NMAC Foundation opted to invite an artist and a school who they had not worked with previously, such that all the aspects of the project, from the artists to the works within the sculpture park would be new and surprising, both for the children and their teachers.  It was important to us that this was a completely new experience for all the parties involved.

The first method of contact was in class.  There they were presented with an introduction to conceptual art and action art explaining the creative process which drives from the collage through to the final performance.  The second day, at the park, we visited the different sculptures alternating them with the reproduction of different performances.  Throughout the day, the children reinterpreted various acts by Marina Abramovic’, Sol Lewitt, Bruce Nauman, Yves Klein, Chris Burden and Jackson Pollock. The last day Cristina and the children were back in the classroom.  Now they were going to be the protagonists of their own performance, converting the classroom in an obstacle course recorded on video.

Throughout the process we could see how the children naturally followed the art’s evolution from the object to the active process.  In no time at all they realised the ease with which one can “adapt” an object and make an artistic “gesture” with it, a lesson they applied to different objects of daily use in the classroom, their homes and even in the park.