Olalla Uriarte Madrid
Madrid
Updated Wednesday, March 27, 2024-21:32
Literature Emilio Gancedo: "The destruction of rural culture is a catastrophe"
Special The myths of depopulated Spain: "Neither empty nor emptied"
When, just a few weeks ago, The Contemporary Foundation published its report
The best of culture in 2023
, many national media outlets echoed part of it. Prestigious institutions such as the El Prado Museum or the Teatro Real, grabbed the headlines while crowning the first places in all the rankings that have existed and have existed, regardless of the disciplines. Big names, big budgets, big cities, little surprises. But
if readers delved a little
deeper, putting into practice the idea that curiosity is not only good for the artist but also for the viewer, they could find a true discovery at the click of a mouse.
In the background, among the flashes of the studio's "culture stars", 57 interesting projects stood out, with their own identity, which are developed outside the usual circuits. 31 festivals, 17 cultural and creation spaces and nine traveling programs that make up
"the best of culture in rural environments"
demonstrate by example that culture has space outside of large cities and that it can become a tool of transformation in the rural environment..
To know more
Music.
Music festivals that treat the audience as if they were the real headliner
Editorial: OLALLA URIARTE
Editorial: PHOTOGRAPHY: JAVIER ROSA
Music festivals that treat the audience as if they were the real headliner
Architecture.
Dreams of a happy countryside in the Spain of the dictatorship and backwardness
Editor: LUIS ALEMANY Madrid
Dreams of a happy countryside in the Spain of the dictatorship and backwardness
The proposals become as varied and heterogeneous as their territories. On the list we can find multidisciplinary festivals such as Camprovinarte (Camprovín, La Rioja), which is mainly responsible for
bringing urban art closer to the rural environment through workshops and artistic interventions
in a small town of barely 150 inhabitants, to projects that value the tradition such as Dansàneu (Vall d'Àneu, Lleida), a dance and popular music meeting that takes place in several towns in the Pyrenees. But there are also institutions that energize the territory throughout the year with interesting cultural programming, such as the Cerezales Antonino y Cinia Foundation (Cerezales del Condado, León).
Setting up a project in a rural environment obviously presents many difficulties, but it also has
unexpected advantages
, as highlighted by Lucía Camón, co-founder of Pueblos en Arte.
Camprovinarte Festival in La Rioja.GLR
"Many times they are places that are not explored, that
function like a blank map
, which makes them ideal spaces for experimentation. In the rural environment we can start paths that are not the usual ones," he says. Who'd say! The towns, converted at the same time into guardians of tradition and avant-garde territories.
When, in addition, the project helps to bring life back to a forgotten area, such as emptied Spain, it is more common for
a sense of community and direct involvement on the part of the neighbors
to arise naturally , even lending a helping hand. as was done in the so-called sextafairs. Of course, for this to happen "it is essential that the projects are linked to the territory, understand the needs of its inhabitants, take into account their intergenerationality and involve people," says Ignacio Somovilla, partner of the cultural space La Charity (L'Infiestu-Piloña, Asturias), together with the well-known artist Rodrigo Cuevas. His project uses culture as a tool to generate movement in the council and create "a place to not leave the town."
Even so, "a common mistake is usually to come from outside with something new, totally ignoring everything that is already done in the place, even discrediting it. But to know that collaborative impetus and that support that can arise in rural areas, you have to be a participant first of their rites and learn by observing," Camón points out. That is to say: before starting to take the first steps,
you have to touch the soil well, know it and value it
, to know what to plant.
Dansaneu Festival, festival of cultures of the Pyrenees.EL MUNDO
In Piloña they still remember the day when their historic abandoned nave in the Plaza Mayor, the main civil building in the region, built a century ago and located right in front of the nursing home, came back to life as a cultural refuge, preserving its foreboding name of yesteryear: La Benéfica. "At the inauguration, the most exciting thing was not the incredible performance of Rozalén or that of several artists from the area, but that of
a 90-year-old resident of the residence who crossed the square
excitedly to sing some traditional songs with her drum," remembers Somovilla. For your project, as for the vast majority of rural initiatives, the fact that the community, the fact that the neighbors themselves, feel part of the project is essential not only for the success of the initiative itself, but for the dynamization and real transformation of these places.
The idea is that culture
should not only serve the important purpose of putting the town on the map among outsiders
, but also to make it more attractive to its inhabitants, thus helping to combat rural depopulation. "I, in particular, am very excited that people, that my neighbors, have the opportunity to discover some proposals that they would not even have imagined being able to see one day, that they enjoy them and that we can share that exciting moment together," says Camón. Bringing foreign culture closer is one of the ways, as is valuing the place's own culture, "developing different initiatives that in turn focus on the rich culture that has always existed in rural areas and that, unfortunately, has past more unnoticed," says Somovilla. The objective is to thus allow neighbors to reconnect or rediscover their own popular knowledge and traditions, even from new perspectives.
Camprovinarte Festival in La Rioja.GLR
Unfortunately, this supposed connection with the territory sometimes amounts to nothing more than being merely a disguise used to improve the image of the project itself, or to make
a custom-made suit for a European subsidy
, as Alfonso Pato, director of the project, has been observing for years. Festival de Cans (yes, there are no letters missing), a project that shares his love for cinema, in his case
"made in Galicia
, with his French 'counterpart' from his small village of Pontevedra. "There is a lot of
rural washing
, believing that it is enough simply for the project to be developed in the rural world, despite carrying it out with a model copied from an urban environment, without taking into account whether you are really contributing something truly transformative to the territory," he says.
If there is a common philosophy among the vast majority of cultural agents who act in rural areas, it is
not to conceive their project primarily as a pure business
. "We obviously do not intend to get rich, far from it. We are a non-profit association. Our main objective is not economic benefit, but simply to be able to develop the project, without making losses," says Pato. A premise that is far from the intensive culture of large festivals, designed to obtain the maximum profit in the shortest possible time.
Still, there is no doubt that numbers matter, but should they be the criterion by which the success or otherwise of a project in a rural environment is reduced? In its last edition,
more than 13,000 people attended the Cans festival
(a village of barely 400 people!), leaving a very important economic impact on the entire area, including the direct hiring of 151 people from the area. Without a doubt some very positive data. But organizers insist that the true purpose, the ultimate goal, goes far beyond numbers.
"In the rural environment the economic impact is good, but it should not be the priority. It is not about holding a three-day event that leaves money in the area, but about promoting an extensive culture that has a real implantation in the territory and that values the social impact. See what remains afterward,
what you have contributed to the different generations
and, although it is very difficult, try to maintain it over time."