EKKLESIA BY PINK INTRUDER
EKKLESIA BY PINK INTRUDER
It is an installation made with cardboard tubes with a metallic
appearance atop a mosaic made of 96,000 wooden pieces.
During the Fallas festival in Valencia held every year the ultimate
goal of these installations is to be burned to celebrate the arrival of spring.
In this context we built a structure entirely of cardboard and wood
joints. The purpose was to investigate to what extent we could carry up this
type of structure, and also to place in a traditional context a contemporary
image to provoke the debate between tradition and modernity.
The installation represented a temple where citizens can meet and
realize the power they have to change things through debate and confrontation
of ideas. Hence the title Ekklesia, as this was the ancient Greek assembly that
met once a year between elections to decide if someone was annoying for the
polis, and if that was the case expel him from the city for ten years.
The facility was visitable and columns were screen printed with
real political messages with critical messages of citizens, trying to highlight
the emptiness of political discourse and the need to provide it with content to
generate discussion and be owners of our future.
The stage on which the installation was settled was a mosaic of
96,000 pieces based on designs of Nolla Mosaic, a traditional Valencian ceramic
that was lost in the middle of 20th century. On the one hand its function was
highlight a lost heritage and to emphasize that any innovation in a traditional
context should be based on a thorough knowledge of tradition.
At the same time we also wanted it to be a participatory project
and therefore the completion of the mosaic was made in different workshops with
children at risk of social exclusion and various neighborhood associations.
The ekklesia (from Ancient Greek “ἐκκλησία ‘) was the main assembly of Athenian
democracy in Ancient Greece. Ostrakon (plural, ostraka), literally piece of
vessel, is the Greek term that has come down to us as the famous exile by
ostracism, and it was nothing but a law allowing citizens to banish for some
time political or other harmful citizens for Polis. Over the potsherds the citizens
had to write the name of the politician who was a potential danger to the
community. In the Athens of the V century B.C. was an important political
institution, safeguarding its democratic system of government from internal
enemies. To apply law of ostracism the Ekklesia gathered once a year debating
whether there was sufficient evidences to implement the ostracism, if
that was the case the ostrakophoria was called , assembly where ostracism was
voted. Such voting was held in the agora, with about 6,000 citizens entitled to
vote. And the vote consisted in writing down on the piece of ceramic uóstrakon
the name of the person that everyone thought it should be ostracized. Once the
votes were counted the one with most votes was banished from Athens for 10 years,
the exile was granted 10 days to prepare his departure from the Polis. The
Athenian ostracism was a preventive law, which anticipated future conspiracies
to establish tyranny.
During the nights an spectacle designed by LedsVisuals took place,
on the Video you can see the whole show.
As a tradition in Falla’s festival the end of intervention was to
be burned to celebrete arrival of spring.
Coolaborators: ARAE Patrimonio, Asociacion Cultural Falla Cronista,
Retales, Josep Martí, Barret Films, Led Visuals, Ignite, Valencia Vibrant,
Choreoscope, Visorifashionart
Photography and video: Noel Arraiz
http://www.pinkintruder.com/
NOLLA’S MOSAIC
As a part of the “Ekklesia” urban intervention, a big mosaic
inspired in Nolla’s ceramic was build to cover the whole floor of the
intervention.
There were two main purposes for covering the floor this way. First
of all we wanted the project to be as collaborative as possible, that´s why
prepairing a 96.000 pieces mosaic gave us the possibility to involve a lot of
people for its construction. Several centers for minors at risk of social
exclusion, association of children with cancer and other schools took part in
the whole process.
On the other hand Nolla’s ceramic was a high quality ceramic based
in Valencia since 1850’s that dissapeared around 1980 . To use an item based on
tradition, giving visibility to a lost tradition, and using this as the floor
from where a contemporary construction was build gave us the possibility of
creating the discussion between tradition and contemporary, and the need that
contemporary must be always be based on previous knowledges.
PINK INTRUDER:
Professional network
for cultural Management and generation of debates:
Pink intruder is a project organized by a group of artists with
expertise in performing interventions in urban space, edition of art and the
organization and coordination of cultural events. We understand the
culture and its management as the primary tool to generate debate and the
debate as the main tool to generate a more pluralistic, participatory and
advanced society
Urban interventions: The urban space is the ideal place to generate debate as it
approaches the viewer and looks for his complicity without having to wait for
an approach to cultural contenders. The culture contained has the risk of
becoming hidden culture.
Art Edition: The cultural product functions as a media of great power, but often
the discussion groups are too homogeneous and closed. Popular culture and
cultural elites should not be antagonistic. We believe in diversity and the
need to generate debate as much transversal as possible.
Team: Pink Intruder counts on the expertise and intellectual support of
national and international partners in the academic and cultural world.
http://www.pinkintruder.com/
