Straight to reach the oasis

The artists Raúl Hidalgo, Esmeralda Gómez Galera and Álvaro Porras Soriano (artist of the Programa d’Art i Context) propose a collective activity in the form of a long walk (about 12 km approx.) along different railway lines that connect the Estación del Norte with the Grao port area. The walk is intended as a psycho-geographical re-reading of the railway network of the city of Valencia.

Throughout the walk, there will be a series of activities, and you will seek various ‘oases’ in which to stop and reflect on the context that surrounds us. The recognition of these heterotopic spaces will help to understand the emergence of new potential landscapes to experience other relationships, functions, and possibilities of co-evolution. This will be a speculative group activity that invites you to let yourself be guided by your intuition with a critical eye.

Meeting point: Under the clock of the Estación del Norte (Maps)
Start time: 6:45 p.m

End point: Nazaret metro station (Maps) [Metrovalencia Line 10] Arrival time: 11 p.m approx.

Raúl Hidalgo (Alcázar de San Juan, 1980) ) investigates the ‘everyday’ to experiment with the fragility of the body, the instability of materials and the awareness of nature. Through installations, activities and scores, he creates collaborative situations to make us reflect on how relationships, materiality and social spaces have the power to alter our behaviour and attitudes. Ultimately, he seeks to put forward a game that allows us to act in our shared present and imagine the future we want.

He has a PhD in Fine Arts from the University of Castilla-La Mancha and a postgraduate degree in Visual Communication from the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg (Germany). He has made site-specific artwork in cities such as Berlin, Bogota, London, Stockholm, Madrid and Mexico. He participates in interdisciplinary projects with international research-creation groups. He has carried out creative stays at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Bogotá), the Instituto de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, the Instituto de Investigación en Arte, Diseño y Sociedad in Oporto, among others. He has received grants and awards such as the Marcelino Botín Visual Arts Grant, the Injuve Project Award, the Aid for research, creation and production from the Ministry of Culture, as well as the PICE-Acción Cultural España Mobility Grant.
http://www.raulhidalgo.net/

Esmeralda Gómez Galera (Tomelloso, 1993) develops artistic research that focuses on the relationship between bodies and urban spaces, finding in the action of walking an aesthetic tool that allows us to experience the urban phenomenon playfully and blurs material and symbolic boundaries existing in the city.

Along with her professional activities related to contemporary art management, she is also an artist and researcher. She studied Fine Arts at UCLM and Philosophy at UNED. She holds a Masters’s degree in Research in Artistic and Visual Practices from the UCLM, where she is currently working on a PhD thesis on the aesthetics of walking as an artistic practice. She has made site-specific art in different cities such as Lisbon, Glasgow, Amsterdam, Berlin, Valencia, and Madrid, participated in exhibitions and residencies, published research articles, and given lectures and workshops in several universities.
https://esmeraldagomezgalera.com/