The IVAM inaugurates new artistic interventions in the three less populated Valencian towns

A work made with abandoned materials, a wooden bench that encourages celebration or a route that invites you to discover the sounds of the landscape are some of the pieces created by the artists participating in the third phase of Confluèncias, the project of the Institut Valencià of Modern Art (IVAM) to bring contemporary art closer to the less populated towns of the Valencian Community. Pep Vidal, Rubén García and the collective Makea Tu Vida are the selected artists who have intervened in Sempere, Carrícola and Puebla de San Miguel, towns that have the title of least inhabited in the province of Valencia. The works have been the result of residences in these municipalities, including on Route 99, with the aim of reflecting on the periphery, rural abandonment, the fact of living and memory.

On the occasion of the presentation of the artistic pieces, the IVAM is organizing a bus visit next Saturday, November 5, to Puebla de San Miguel, located in the foothills of the Sierra de Javalambre, in the region of Racó d'Ademús. 'Confluences. Artistic interventions in the towns of Route 99' began in 2021 and over the course of three years will have the participation of a total of 12 artists to intervene in 24 towns. After passing through the less populated localities of Castelló, the project continues in Valencia with the presentation of these three proposals that address issues such as territory, ecology, design, identity or memory.

Artistic interventions

Biologist, audio artist and independent curator Rubén García (Bicorp, 1974) proposes the exploration of Carrícola's sound universe through active listening to the environment. On the one hand, with the design of a route or sound guide that includes strategic points that invite you to investigate acoustically in a certain area. On the other, with the composition of hidden sounds, Amagats, in which, through the editing and mixing of different recordings, it aims to give a sample of the non-audible environment.

Pep Vidal (Rubí, Barcelona, 1980) has a degree in Mathematics and a PhD in Physical Sciences and combines artistic practice with teaching at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. His project, 'Los límites del control', proposes an intervention to evoke the history flooded by water and to reflect on the limits of control in the small municipality of Sempere (the Albaida Valley). The artist has recovered the materials that remained semi-hidden and abandoned in a plot close to the Bellús reservoir, rearranging them in an attempt to move from chaos to order (control), with the possibility of being again flooded by water or vegetation (out of control).

Makea Tu Vida is a group that works in the area between design and ecology. In this intervention, they have tried to create, around the square of the Church of Puebla de San Miguel, a space for coexistence for the neighbors. To do this, they have reused a large wooden beam on which they have inscribed "La _______ del pueblo", an incomplete message open to the free interpretation of people passing by.

All the projects framed in Confluèncias have been possible thanks to the help – before, during and after their periods of stay – of the town councils and local agents, and of the inhabitants of the municipalities, who facilitated accommodation, meetings and conversations in order to carry out the artistic proposals.