CONFLUÈNCIES, artistic interventions in the Alto Mijares.

CONFLUÈNCIES. Artistic interventions in rural areas is a project of artistic activations in the smallest villages of the Valencian Community*, within the context of l’IVAM al territori. This project aims to open up, move and decentralise the museum beyond the physical space of its main headquarters, and instigate a dialogue with other contexts and institutions.

The programme of residencies, interventions and artistic mediation began in September 2021 in the Alto Mijares, one of the least densely populated areas and most urgently in need of repopulation in the Valencian Community. Here, six artists visited several municipalities, both individually and in groups, and talked to the neighbours, listened to the environment and presented their artistic proposals to the population, in a sort of open assembly. After this process of exchange and dialogue with the different contexts, the artists made specific interventions for each locality.

Confluències in the Alto Mijares comprises the following selection of artists and towns:

• In Espadilla, LUCE has carried out four interventions in different parts of the village with the aim of reflecting on the municipality and its inhabitants, as well as making visitors aware of its uniqueness.
• In Fuentes de Ayódar, Carlos Izquierdo has generated a sound piece, like a radio clip that evokes feelings of identification with this territory and stresses the importance of protecting its natural heritage.
• In Torralba del Pinar, Bleda and Rosa produced an ephemeral intervention in the landscape with the aim of symbolically connecting this municipality with the neighbouring municipality of Pavías.
• In Torrechiva, Sandra Mar, using ceramic pieces, invited us to walk through the exteriors and interiors of the town and discover the places and people who inhabit them.
• In Vallat, Laura Palau turned three fruit trees into artistic objects thanks to the technique of cuttings and, in doing so, tells us about the traditional knowledge, lore and habits of the people and their land.
• In Villamalur, the collective Fent Estudi interprets the swing as an element that takes us back to childhood, symbolising the passage of time. By activating it with our impulse, its swinging allows us to admire the marvellous views of the surroundings.

*The twenty-four localities where the Confluències programme is being developed are the villages of the so-called Route 99, and their interventions are the result of the Generalitat Valenciana’s invitation to the IVAM to take part in this initiative. In addition to the villages of the Alto Mijares phase, other municipalities that make up the route and in which Confluències proposes its intervention programme are: Fuente la Reina, Villanueva de Viver, Matet, Sacañet, Higueras and Pavías (Mancomunidad Alto Palancia) allibona, Herbés, Palanques, Villores and Castell de Cabres (Els Ports); in the province of Castellón: Sempere, Carrícola and La Puebla de San Miguel in the province of Valencia; and Benillup, Benimassot, Famorca and Tollos (El Comptat), in the province of Alicante.