The Arts Santa Mònica project where anything can happen

BarcelonaSanta Mónica is a hotbed of creativity. In the cloister, Claudia del Barrio, from the production company Merci Xula, is preparing Ouineta's new music video. Two floors up, choreographer and dancer Mónica Valenciano improvises, sharing the space with members of the Valencian collective Las Mediocre, who are working at their computers on the development of a conflict resolution office. They'll have to move very soon, because Ouineta's video will be filmed here in a matter of days. Back in the cloister, the stage designed by artist Víctor Ruiz Colomer is now empty, awaiting new artists. And suddenly, a cloud of smoke, conceived by stage designer Leticia Skrycky, begins to form.

Nothing is arbitrary; it's all part of the project. Without a crack, there is no point of lightCurated by Tomàs Aragay and Sofia Asencio (Sociedad Doctor Alonso), the exhibition invited artists Sara Manubens and Carolina Campos to collaborate on the project and enlisted around twenty other creators to participate. "What we considered was at what point and under what circumstances something poetic occurs," says Tomàs Aragay. "We could call it a cultural event, but we were also thinking about a more poetic, transformative event, because cultural life is full of events, museums are full of events, but they are generally very regulated, very explained, and very structured," he adds.

The curators challenge the more institutional nature of museums by creating circumstances that often take the public by surprise. This is the complete opposite of the idea of the museum as a cog in the tourism industry, constantly focused on visitor rankings. Núria Güell, realizing the risk of becoming a tourist attraction, has capitalized on this by hiring a woman to represent her in the project's creative residency.

"The project is an invitation to come and spend some time in the museum, to wait for things to happen, not when they are planned or announced, but when they happen," says Aragay, as the afternoon snack arrives. Eating and drinking in the museum? For free? "Museum cafes are usually very expensive, and there's this somewhat silly idea that when you're consuming art you can't be comfortable. So we talked to Cantina Migrante, which is run by people from the neighborhood, and we proposed that they create a varied catering menu based on their cooking. So every day there are many people who, in an area where there are people who don't have a good life, can come here and know that there's food," Aragay explains.

All artistic languages

The selection of artists was based on a desire for diversity in terms of gender, themes, and artistic languages. There is dance, installations, video art, literature, fashion... (such as Sofía Archer's clothing for non-normative bodies). Another aspect of the project is gender, as exemplified by the Brazilian anarcho-transfeminist artist Bruna Kury, who has developed a project about her transition and colonialism within the performance and an installation that changes over several days. Another approach involves bringing popular practices like ice nail manicures into the art institution. "We don't approach gender as discourse, but as an unstable space," says Aragay.

And above all, there's the idea of elevating the creative process to the status of the artwork itself. "The processes are usually hidden, but we consider them the most important work that the viewer should see. The artist's process is as important as the result. You're not just a consumer of a work, but you should be alive and in dialogue with a work that is also alive," says Aragay.