Have you heard of Les Mòniques?

Every year, the Santa Monica Arts Centre in Barcelona hosts various artists over an eleven-month residency, who interact collectively in work groups known as guilds. In order for us to get to know them a little bit better, the seven guilds active during the 2023-2024 academic year have let us into their research spaces to share their experiences and tell us briefly who they are, what they do, and the words they would use to describe their journey through Santa Mònica – a context where they especially value being able to research with time, resources and care, in groups with trans-disciplinary profiles, working within both guild and inter-guild operations.

The aim of Les Mòniques is to work on the centre’s content, originating new creations with a trans-media logic, based on collectively defined objectives. This research and experimentation grant promotes the development of prototypes for artistic mediation platforms that open up content, discourses and questions, contained within and generated by the centre, to different audiences.

1. Gastronomy guild

The Gastronomy guild formed by Yazel Parra, Alexandra Laudo and Laura Torres, is interested in the sociological, cultural, economic and political aspects of food. How the production and trade of certain foods have intervened in the development of global civilization processes such as colonialism or capitalism. They generate ideas and reflections such as making thought edible, as a way of de-hierarchizing thought and culture itself. They have worked in two modes of action, one being the podcast Digestions, where they invite guests specialised in their themes of interest to share their knowledge. The other mode of action is the mobile kitchen, inherited from the previous gastronomy guild, where the act of cooking together also becomes an act of protest through which to share all experiences.

Watch the video here or read the transcription here.

2. Digitalization guild

This guild, made up of Carlos Carbonell, Marc Villanueva and Quelic Berga-Carreras, investigates the various uses of digital technologies and their relationship in the context of the Santa Monica Arts centre and its audiences in a practical and playful way. They consider how digital technology is shaping us and how we can play with subverting it, turning it upside-down and interrogating it. They start out from the following concerns and suspicions: How can we question and enrich the interaction between people and computational systems? How do we position and situate ourselves in relationship with generative artificial intelligences, robotics or social networks? How do new models of interaction and socialization emerging in the post-digital era affect us?

Watch the video here or read the transcription here.

3. Editing guild

Verónica Lahitte, Antonis Antoniou and Carla Lupa, form the Editing guild. A guild whose work is based on shareable methodologies exploring the multiple dimensions of language: as sound, as gesture, as action, as an organ. During these months, they are continuing projects from last year, such as Balda; and developing other actions, such as the construction of a mobile, anti-racist and anti-colonialist library, as well as organising workshops for children and proposing inter-guild activities.

Watch the video here or read the transcription here.

4. Participation guild

The Participation guild, formed by Tatiana Antoni Conesa and Violeta Ospina Domínguez, contributes a vision, a line of research, called Repara-acció intended to make the institution a more permeable and accessible place for all bodies, trying to centre it around bodies that have been violated by colonial and ableist normativity. Their actions, such as ableist autosuggestion, the plea box, and in relation to other irreparable agents, are meant as a gesture of repair towards the artistic and social fabric that has historically been violated and that experiences racial, classist and ableist oppression on a daily basis.

Watch the video here or read the transcription here.

5. Communication guild

Ángela Palacios, Lara Martínez and Anna Vilamú form the Communication guild and have been very clear from the outset: they want to carry out their research calmly, collectively and with humor. They currently devote themselves to elaborating different internal communication processes via collective workshops, while working on the discourse. They have also formalized the project Sojornar, a prototype initiated by the previous guild, aimed at Year 4 primary school pupils.

Watch the video here or read the transcription here.

6. Spaces guild

The sixth guild we talked to is the Spaces guild (or Spies’ guild as they like to call themselves), made up of Cristina Candela, Pedro Bennaton and Anna Solanilla. Their research explores the concept of the body in space, from the perspectives of performance, listening and observation of which bodies enter or do not enter the museum. In their research, they focus on the concept of “in-between”: the interstitial spaces, liminal spaces, the borders between the institution and the street. For example, moments between exhibitions at the Santa Monica, where they propose actions in cohabitation with and listening to what goes on in the space when there is no exhibition on.

Watch the video here or read the transcription here.

7. Education guild

The final interview is with the Education guild, with Rosa Llop, Martí de la Malla and Sara Manubens. Their research is based on the consideration of symbolic capital that families can bring to the institution and how the artistic institution can reciprocate with a positive impact on families. They question the traditional model of family and the traditional model of institution, bringing visibility to a diverse concept of family and considering how the institution should accommodate this diversity. What actions can have an impact on families visiting the institution, in order for them, in some way, to make it their own. Specify what an artistic institution means, what can be done there and what affective bonds can be created.

Watch the video here or read the transcription here.

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APROPOS is content created about something going on in our artistic context. In this case in collaboration with Santa Mònica and the seven guilds that form Les Mòniques 2023-24.