Looking back at my time in Valencia and forward
I spent 2 rich weeks in a residency at Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporanea (CCCC) in Valencia between February 24 to March 10. During my time there, I managed to follow my initial plan with additional unexpected element and most rewarding, the human connections. I am proud of the whole process, and I have gained a new perspective of myself through translating my work for communication, and simply being in a new-known place. Reading and hearing myself, It feels like different persons habit in me, each speaks in a different language.
CCCC claustro
In this temporary relocation I experienced plenty of insecurities: fear of not providing what my hosts expected from me, of not being productive or interesting enough to be entitled to be a guest. I kept pondering what is a residency? And defined it for myself as to be in learning, inhabiting a new place to enable a reflection and conversations with professionals that welcome me into their working world. During this time at CCCC, I offered an activity to the public, met students at Master Permea – Experimental Mediation and Education through the Arts (that has base in the same cultural center); met professionals in the field; and encountered artists that “put their body” literally (ponen el cuerpo) in relation to spaces of art and learning.
I deeply enjoyed being a student for a week. The classes with Pedagogias Invisibles were eye openers. Moving to a new context in a different language brings also new references, thinkers that reflect about similar matters with a totally different angle. Joining a cohesive cohort that welcomed me so openly, inviting me to their circle that surpasses the classroom – it included dinners, drinks after class, a theater performance, birthday celebration(s), marching together in 8 March (8M), international women day with a combating spirit. It was, once again, beyond imagination.
The open activity interweaved RSVP Cycles thinking with texts by Audre Lorde because of the closeness to 8M (1). The words erotic and mainly poetic were pillar in the meeting as the basis for mechanism to recognize and articulate our own nature. After attunement exercises, reading and visiting a gallery, we gathered around a table to collect resources around the question “how do we activate the poetic”? (como activar lo poetico?)
The question and the answers that came out leap back to the beginning of my time in this life chapter, where words such as intimacy, daily actions, restrictions, predisposition and the capacity to create symbolic relations came up. In this regard, I see the relation between the poetic and scoring, as the second creates limitations, activate an inner space for dialogue with a creative twist, and welcomes all reactions with acceptance.
Reflecting on this time away, I am reminded, once again, that I learn with others. I need the combo of instances to be in reflection. There is no high-low differentiation – walking and chatting, discussing a text, drinking a beer. In all, weaving happens. As a friend said, my learning is relational. Every imprint, conversation, bits and pieces construct my understanding. The word in Spanish sentirpensar (feeling-thinking) defines how I move and like moving (2).
I travelled holding the question of where do I professionally belong, how to label my position, is it cultural mediator? And what is my habitat? Rather than being disappointed because it seems I don’t fit in a museum per se or a specific context, I understood in the flesh that the answer is not to be found outside. As simple as that. I need to define it following my curiosities. I am in constant transition, and that is fine.
With this spiral movement, I land back in NL to keep moving – applying to open calls, developing collaborations with a clearer standing.
Just as a closure, I will share that I am super glad my graduation project is included in the Centre de documentation Contredanse platform, Brussels. You can find it online and physically on their shelves.
I am grateful for the privilege that is travelling between lands, meeting worlds, and entangle lives, and for all the beautiful people I was touched, and touched.
Let’s keep rolling!
1. Lorde, A. (2018). The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. Penguin Classics.