Fireplace

#Middleground #Cultural #Platform and #Community #Artist run #space #Barcelona

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WHAT SPACE DOES ART NEED? TALK WITH: MARIONA ALCARAZ, PRISCILA CLEMENTTI, ORIOL FONTDEVILA, LARA GARCIA AND MARC VIVES.

Fireplace has started this years program with a roundtable about artist run spaces to strat it’s program CAMPAMENTO BASE: an investigation about artist run spaces. 

A great article that explains many of the questions arised during the talk was written by Caterina Almirall in A-DESK Magazine.

Why would we have to share if we didn’t have limits?

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FIREPLACE participated last february 2017 during the Arco Art Fair in Madrid in the SUPERSIMÈTRICA.

S U P E R S I M É T R I C A is an international encounter of Independent projects. In this edition they put the focus in countries of south Europe and Latin America.  The project was organized by independent space Salón and curator Bernardo Sopelana.

The line up of guest projects include: Bisagra (Lima), Carne (Bogota), Triangle (Marseilles), Montecristo Project (Sardinia), Mars (Milan), 3 137 (Athens) y nuestros vecinos de Barcelona Passatge Studio, Espai Colona y Bar Project.

Fireplace was at Supersimétrica presenting the new artwork "L'Auca del Senyor Esteve" that we have done with the artist Aldo Urbano.

The Auca of senyor Esteve is a series of 10 paintings based on a selection of frames from Santiago Rusinyol's novel (published in 1907) that, combining the “essay or sketch of manners” and the tipical Catalan “auca” (a genre of storytelling through frames accompanied with a rhyme), he presents a synthetic and critical analysis of the pragmatic mentality of the bourgeoisie of the time and the upcoming relationship between artist and society that emerges during the Modernist era. 

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COLLABORATION AGREEMENT WITH ESDI UNIVERSITY

Last 9th of September, Fireplace and ESDI University signed a collaboration agreement to develop a new project. The main objective of this work will be “reconsider and redesign the shared areas and the multifunctional characteristic of the Fireplace’s space located in Poblenou (Barcelona).

The project will be developed within the course “Projectes II” of the 3rd grade of Interior Design Degree and the results will be presented to the public at the beginning of next 2017.

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“EELI’S DREAM OF FIREPLACE” AT SWAB SEED

29th SEP - 2nd OCT 2016

The installation of Fireplace in Swab Seed represented the images produced by the recent dreams of Eeli, the American artist who during the months of summer was doing an internship with Fireplace.

He thought of a tiger and a tiger appeared. He thought of worms and worms appeared. He though of art and art appeared. The intern slept and dreamt. But, where do these dreams go? Can they come true? Can Fireplace make them be real? Can Fireplace make dreams come true?

The productive power of Eeli’s dream creates a new Fireplace situated in a faraway neighborhood of America. Somewhere between the jungles of Hawaii and the deserts of California, next to a river where fishermen with worms and violins search for better salmon. A “collage of anthropomorphic floating elements” that co-habit with other more familiar objects from his stay in Fireplace. “Narratives of many endings; strung together amidst collapse and utopian demands. Personal essays from the summer of sorrow (2016), with an arm towards the future and an eye towards the past. Impossible geographies where utopia exists”. (1)

The precariousness of independent art spaces is nothing new. Within the immaterial job market there is nothing more immaterial than dreams. And the one of a intern is especially slippery. Fireplace decides to slide down and try to make as material as possible the dream of Eeli.

(1) Eeli’s own words, taken from the text of presentation for his first concert, which took place in Fireplace last July 2016.

(Photos by Quim Packard, David Armengol, Laura Llaneli and Marina Esmeraldo).

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FIRECONCERT: EELI

27th JUL 2016

Before starting the summer break, this July we had the pleasure of presenting the first concert by Eeli. This artist based in Providence (Rhode Island) did a concert in celebration of that virtue of doors, by which they are made neither to be open or closed, but to open and close.

"Collages of anthropocenic flotsam. Poems against the backdrop of the global civil war. Narratives of many endings; strung together amidst collapse and utopian demands. Personal essays from the summer of sorrow (2016), with an arm towards the future and an eye towards the past. Impossible geographies where utopia exists. Hannah Arendt wrote that "as a table is located between those who sit around it; the world, like every in-between, relates and separates men at the same time." With honor to Miss Arendt, these sounds might carve out spaces where people can dance at intimate distances."

Eeli has been working for a month and half in Fireplace as guest artist.

Find more about Eeli's work here: https://soundcloud.com/fl_sh

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FIREPRESENTATION 3: “The online platform TAN-TÁN”

21st JUL 2016

For some time, the TuerCo. collective have been talking and sharing reflections with the people from Graf about the experience of launching a digital platform aimed to be a useful tool for the contemporary art context. This conversations have triggered a series of questions such as How could be the art world profesionalized through the use of technology? Why do we keep using Facebook as broadcast medium to communicate our work even knowing that it isn't a professional tool? How the art world incorporates or reject the new medios for the information distribution and management of the artistic practices? How the digital platforms help the democratization of the art? Does the democratization of the art interests us?

This summer Fireplace hosted an open encounter/talk/workshop organized by TuerCo. to discuss these matters at the same time they presented and explained participants how to use and explore their digital platform Tan-Tán: a platform that helps artists, curators, institutions and art enthusiasts to visibilise, communicate, save time and get the pulse of what is happening around art.

Tant Tán in 90 secs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNdvFisIg1A

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FIREEXHIBITION 3: “THE GAZE BOUNCES FRENETICALLY”

28th MAY - 18th JUN 2016

On Saturday 28th of May we opened the exhibition "The Gaze Bounces Frenetically" by the artists Eulàlia Rovira and Adrian Schindler. This exhibition was part of the program "Espaces d'amis" curated by Rosa Lleó for Loop Festival 2016.

“The gaze spins around. The voice (with a certain foreign accent): Acknowledge the porosity of the plinth. The gaze moves slowly down to the horseshoes. The other voice: The name of the donor, the face of a saint, a naked citizen. The gaze bounces frenetically from one fragment to another.”

The exhibition "The Gaze Bounces Frenetically" showed a selection of their collaborative works and a new installation produced for the occasion, "The feet anchored to the ground betraying no impatience", that brings into focus the limits and links between exhibition and urban space.

By outlining the materiality of the elements that conform the city's environment (sculptures, buildings and urban equipment), the works in the exhibition unfold stories about the cultural, social and political history of our daily landscape. Trough video, text and sound, they generate new layers of signifiers that foreground the bonds with power inherent to these scenographies.

On the day of the opening the works were presented as a screening.

Eulàlia Rovira's and Adrian Schindler's practice is based on research and the physical experience of public and historical objects, investigating the relations they establish with contemporary bodies. Through polyphonic narratives they question the interdependence of esthetic decisions and ideologic discourses while putting in danger the own authority of the account.

They live and work in Barcelona. Both graduated in Fine Arts, one at the University of Barcelona the other at Beaux-Arts de Paris, and both have studied the postgraduate Art and Context at the UDK inBerlin. They have shown their work at the Centquatre (Paris), at ZKU -Center for Art and Urbanistics (Berlin), at Kreuzberg Pavillion (Berlin), the Archipel InVest of KUNSTrePUBLIK (Reckinghausen), at the Capella de Sant Roc (Valls) and soon at the Sala d'Art Jove (Barcelona) and Turf Projects (Croydon). They work together since 2013 and have as well recently initiated a furniture and display design project.

+ "Espaces d'amis" was a program conceived as a conversation with different independent spaces through moving images. The spaces that were part of this circuit were: BARproject, El Palomar, Espai Colona, Halfhouse, Homesession, LaKino, Múltiplos, The Green Parrot and Fireplace.

Photos by Kiwi Bravo and the artists.

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FIREPLACE PARTICIPATES IN "Cohabitar -Entre" at Fabra i Coats Art Center, as part of the program "En transició".

Fireplace's participation in the exhibition “Cohabitar -Entre” had two parts: The first one is an installation making reference to Fireplace as an independent art space. Two of our actual tables of the Fireplace co-working space were swapped by others from Fabra to become our exhibition display, on which we showed the video of the performances done in the event of the Fireplace 1st anniversary and the three texts written for that occasion, through which artists Carlos Valverde, Claudia Pagès and Quim Packard reflect on what independent art spaces are and can be in our cultural network. The texts were formalized differently to be part of the installation: written on a light grey cotton hoodie hanging from a chair (Claudia's text), as a big poster designed by fireresident Priscila Clementi (Carlos's text), and as a series of postcards with drawings by Quim Packard and Ángela Palacios (Quim's text).

The second part was a performance program in which we invited again artists Laura Llaneli, Llança SOSUN, Jesús Jeleton and Juanjo Pedro to interpret the texts written by artists Carlos Valverde, Claudia Pagès and Quim Packard. Once again, the result was an ongoing concert that invited visitors to listen and think together about the role independent art spaces have in our cultural network. It was very interesting the fact that the first time we made these performances was in the context of Fireplace and it was "somehow" different to re-do them at Fabra i Coats, which is a public institution depending on the Barcelona's city council. The performances took place on the 26th of May 2016.

"Cohabitar -Entre [Institutional emergencies, art practices and public processes]" is a project by Idensitat ID + LaFundició + Sinapsis Projecte + Transductores.

In this 1st phase-exhibition of the project the programs and participants were:

Program "EN TRANSICIÓ": Espai Germanetes (amb Laia Solé, Catie de Balmann, Straddle3, Carme de la Madrid - alumnes de l'EASD Serra i Abella de l'Hospitalet, i AnkaZawadzka–Janek Dowgiallo); El Solar de La Puri (amb Taller de Ficció, Laboratori Reversible, CCCB Centre de Cultius Contemporanis del Barri i l'Hort de la Puri); desdelamina.net (amb Isma Monfort i Col·lectiu I Love La Mina); Col·lectiu Supterranis; Espai Colona; FirePlace Project, amb Carlos Valverde, Quim Packard, Claudia Pagès, Laura Llaneli, Llança SOSUN, Juanjo Pedro i Jesús Jeleton; Curro Claret, amb Fundació Arrels, Escola Llotja i Cooperativa Alencop; Torolab.

Program "ANTENA": Daniel Miracle (Neokinok), Pamela Gallo (Ubutv) i Hugo Barbosa (hbprgms)

Program "TELER": Lemur + Escola Can Fabra, Lola Lasurt, Teleduca. Educacio i Comunicacio SCP + CRP Sant Andreu

Program "DESBORDAR LA CULTURA": Serpentine Galleries/Center for Possible Studies (amb el projecte Re:assembly); Intermediae (amb el projecte Paisaje Sur Autoconstruyendo UseraVillaverde); Fundación Museos Quito–Mediación Comunitaria (amb el projecte Mercado de San Roque); Fundación Cerezales Antonino y Cinia (amb el projecte Territorio Archivo). Artibarri, La Ciutat Invisible, Ateneu Popular 9 Barris i membres de col·lectius d'artistes visuals.

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FIREPRESENTATION 2: ST/PROJECTS

22nd APR 2016

We were happy to host the presentation of www.projects-st.com, a project by curator Pedro Portellano.

"st/projects" is a platform for art production and contemporary art curatorship. Its objective is to find other forms of collaboration with artists, not only supporting the production or exhibition of their projects but also through the sales and marketing strategies.

For the presentation Pedro Portellano conversed with Sonia Fernández Pan, encouraging an open discussion with the attendees regarding the matters and reflections that the project arises: the relationship between curatorship and the art galleries, the new ways for funding art projects, art production beyond the art gallery or the public and private institutions, the obsolescence of exhibitions programs, among other topics.

Pedro Portellano is a curator and cultural manager living in Berlin. Sonia Fernández Pan is a curator living in Barcelona. Sonia and Pedro love to debate.

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FIRE ANNIVERSARY 1

12th MAR 2016

On Saturday 12th of March from 12.30h to 19h, we celebrated the 1st anniversary of Fireplace! We gave the name of "Independence or Death" to the event as a whole. See the video of the performances here!

The event included musical performances by artista Laura Llaneli, Llança SOSUN, Juanjo Pedro and Jesús Jeleton, who interpreted the texts writen by artists Claudia Pagès ("Fuck the foc"), Carlos Valverde ("Espacio Temporal Autogestionado") and Quim Packard ("Chai Latte"). We invited them to write a text reflecting on what independent art spaces are and can be. And then, we challenged musicians and other artists to add music and sound to these reflections. The result was an ongoing concert that invited event visitors to listen and think together about the role independent art spaces have in our cultural network.

The celebration day also included Firemusic by Fireresidents (Marina Esmeraldo and Pernan Goñi) and Firefriends (Antoni Hervás and Basora) and Firefood prepared with lot of love by ourselves Quim and Ángela with the special advice of Nyam Nyam.  

We also counted with the collaboration of Hangar, who lent us the sound system, Cerveza Artesana Espiga who brought the craft beer, and Monica Toila, for video-recording the performances.

Thanks everybody for coming! Thanks Andrés Vial for the great potos you took during the party and to Jette for the olive tree you gave as a birthday present. :D

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FIREPRESENTATION 1: “NEW PROJECT”

3rd MAR 2016

Last March we hosted in Fireplace the presentation of "NEW PROJECT", a project in collaboration between the shoe designer Sara de Ubieta, the artist Ariadna Parreu, the jewellery designer Niwen Paola, photographer Ico Mateo and artist and curator Marc Navarro.

Taking as a starting point the last shoe collection designed by De Ubieta, "Autónoma", a group of artists and designers put in common their different production processes. The result of this experiment is a collection of silk handkerchiefs and a publication, both including the photographs by Ico Mateo and the texts by Marc Navarro.

"The game of contraries that is established between the architectural structures designed by Ariadna Parreu and the malleability of the fabric on which the photographs of these structures are printed, serves as starting point for mixed dialogues with the De Ubieta's shoes and Niwen Paola's jewellery".

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SPECIAL MENTION BY THE PREMIS CIUTAT DE BARCELONA 2015

We're happy to announce the special mention to Fireplace among a series of independent and self-managed art spaces, by the "Premis Ciutat de Barcelona 2015".

Hurray!

Now we have a photo with Barcelona's mayoress Ada Colau :)

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COLLAB PROJECT: FIREBREW

All Fire co-workers, we have drawn together and designed a new label for a limited edition of craft beer by beer Espiga called "Best Bitter".

Here's the result of our work! : D

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FIRESESSION 1

On the 12th of November 2015 Fireplace presented the First Firesession. It was an exhibition of the last work by the author of the book Demagogy and Propaganda in Art according to Antonio Ortega, which could also be called Demagogy and Propaganda in Antonio Ortega's Art.

With the objective of purifying the exhibition space Antonio Ortega has installed an ozone dispenser, for this reason WE INVITED THE AUDIENCE NOT TO COME, for their presence would have diabled the antipathogenic function of the apparatus.

The exhibition lasted until the 11th of December of 2015.

Photos: Kiwi Bravo

Collaborate: Craft Beer Espiga

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FIREPLACE ROUTE X GRAF

We were asked to write one of the routes for the platform Graf. The September’s route. We thought that weather will be still nice by this time of the year so we decided to prepare something for the outdoor.

First step was to ask Zioxla for a list of 5 plants that she would think worth to visit in Barcelona. Then, the American editor gave us a list of 4 places related to flowers and plants. Then, we decided to aske artist Ryan Rivadeneyra to make a route through the selected places, focusing in certain elements he would pick up from each location.

That’s the final text and photos he made for the route: http://www.graf.cat/en/ruta/agost-2015-per-quim-packard-i-angela-palacios-fireplace/

Thanks Zioxla and Ryan for the collaboration. And thanks to Graf for the invitation!

This project will continue…

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FIRE AFTER SUMMER SCHOOL PROGRAM

Speed, acceleration, force and friction are terms associated with movement.

Mass is how we calculate the resistance of an object to movement.

Mass is a collective.

Physical post-digital bodies moving towards something.

In a system where light becomes our main communication method through our mobile devices, physical bodies and objects are gaining new meanings. Mass and movement are two concepts that can help us think about the importance of physicality in a digital bloom era.

“Bodies moving towards something” is a one week intensive workshop that addresses these issues through a series of seminars, debates, practical exercises and site visits. We'll talk about shoes, presence, buildings, collections, dolmens, food, gardens, exhibition spaces, art and how the physical world is approached in the art field and in our daily lives today.

FOR WHO? Artists, curators and critics who are willing to take part in discussion and practical exercises. 

WHEN? September 7th to 12th 2015

WHERE? In Fireplace, Barcelona.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: August 5th, 2015.

FEE: 100 euros

Ask for more info at: [email protected]

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FIRESESSION 0

Last Monday 6th of July the “WAVE” session took place in Fireplace.

We enjoyed music as part of the Dublab.es Broadcast #17 and also two performances by the artists Daniel Moreno Roldán and Sophia Washburn.

We also had so much fun tasting different kinds of Espiga craft beer. We ran out of beer in just 1 hour!

Thanks everybody for coming to the session!

Click here to listen to the broadcast in full and here to listen to a recording Daniel Moreno Roldán’s radio play, “El Corrido de Charles Ashmore”.

With the collaboration of Draft Beer Espiga.