CONFLUÈNCIES, artistic interventions in the Alto Palancia.

CONFLUÈNCIES. Artistic Interventions in the Rural Environment continues its process of artistic activations in the least populated municipalities, within the context of IVAM al territori. Following those carried out in the first six villages in the Alto Mijares region, the project continues to develop in another six municipalities in the province of Castellón, this time in the Mancomunidad del Alto Palancia.

The actions carried out by the team of artists during the process, seek to establish links with the municipalities and the people who live there. Through dialogue, attentive listening and shared learning, the resulting interventions attempt to connect contemporary art with places that are not accustomed to these languages, becoming the instigator of new imaginaries, as well as a reason to visit and discover these places.

The selection of artists who have developed their residencies in these six towns not only includes those who were already part of Confluències in the Alto Mijares -such as Luce, Carlos Izquierdo, Sandra Mar or Bleda y Rosa- but also incorporates the new perspectives of Makea Tu Vida and Pilar Beltrán.

These are their proposals for the villages of the Mancomunidad del Alto Palancia:

• intervenes in the electric tower situated at the entrance to the village using typography and text, transforming it into an element that sends out messages related to what is going on in the village.
• In Higueras, Carlos Izquierdo invites us to pay attention to the sounds around us and compile an archive of listening through actions and places suggested after their sojourn.
• In Matet, Sandra Mar has written fragments of a story generated from recovered memory on eight ceramic pieces distributed throughout the town’s streets.
• In Pavías, Bleda and Rosa propose an ephemeral intervention in the land connecting this municipality with the neighbouring Torralba del Pinar, unfolding a reflection on territory; what is common and what is shared.
• El colectivo MIn Sacañet, the collective Makea Tu Vida have reused a large wooden beam, placing it by the entrance to the village cave, creating a harmonious balance between visibility and integration with the natural environment.
• In Villanueva de Viver, Pilar Beltrán has been weaving a choral narrative of objects and images made from what she heard and saw during her stay in the village.

** 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) Vallibona, 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.