00:11 At university,
00:12 in the place where you’re supposed to learn everything
00:13 for the rest of your life,
00:15 which is a falsehood,
00:17 I studied Law and Economy,
00:20 but I never worked in Law or Economy,
00:24 always in art and culture.
00:25 I mean, I studied that,
00:27 but just because you study something
00:29 doesn’t mean you’re condemned to it for the rest of your life, right?
00:32 So at one point I took a hard turn
00:36 and dedicated myself to something else, right up to today.
00:38 I started to be interested in everything that was happening
00:40 at that time online,
00:42 which was like a new space
00:43 that we understood to be a public sphere...
00:45 Later on, it wasn’t at all,
00:47 but at that point it was unregulated.
00:50 I started to be interested in it more
00:53 as a researcher and as a creator.
00:55 Perhaps that path
00:57 better explains where I ended up,
00:59 which is working with artistic practices
01:02 that are closely connected to science and technology.
01:10 When I was interested
01:13 in artistic practices online,
01:15 in new media above all,
01:16 there were creators that were working with programming,
01:19 with cutting-edge
01:23 tech components,
01:24 while expanding the language
01:26 of art at the same time.
01:28 In all disciplines,
01:29 we can look towards science and technology
01:31 with the tools that each discipline provides,
01:34 and science and technology
01:35 draw from them at the same time.
01:38 That is to say, clear compartments
01:40 for art and science, or anything else, don’t exist.
01:43 I mean, everything is mixed together in reality.
01:52 Today, ‘citizen science’ is used as a password,
01:56 as a label,
01:57 that you slap on something
01:58 and you seem to get more resources,
02:02 because it has the word citizen and it has the word science,
02:04 and both words mobilise people.
02:06 For me, citizen science is a democratic strategy
02:11 in the sense that
02:13 scientific knowledge organises us as a society
02:18 on all levels
02:19 and, therefore, we would have the right as a society
02:22 to be much better informed
02:23 about what is happening in the areas of science
02:26 and in all subsequent sectors,
02:28 like applied technologies, etc.
02:31 Democratising the culture of science,
02:34 making it accessible,
02:36 providing the means so that we can have information,
02:38 so that we train ourselves,
02:40 to break down that barrier
02:43 that intimidates us
02:44 as individuals that have not studied science,
02:46 the access to scientific knowledge.
02:48 Today, the general culture of a 21st century citizen
02:51 passes through scientific culture.
02:58 As a society,
03:01 we are going to have to make
03:03 very important climate decisions
03:05 that are not being made,
03:07 but the indifference with which we are facing
03:10 this lack of decision-making
03:12 is closely connected to the fact that,
03:14 well, the information is there but
03:15 we don’t have the desire to understand it,
03:19 or we have been trained
03:23 in a cultural system
03:25 that specifically maintains this idea
03:27 of science as a specialised field.
03:31 I mean, the scientific community has been saying
03:34 since at least the 70s, if not before,
03:36 but at least since the 70s
03:38 there was already information available,
03:40 a critical mass of sufficiently
03:42 extensive and tested information
03:43 that has been accumulating, building up more and more.
03:46 It’s not an opinion.
03:47 If we talk about energy, for example,
03:50 we’re reaching the energy limit.
03:53 The collapse of biodiversity,
03:55 mass extinction is coming,
03:58 the extinction of pollinators is coming.
04:03 Deforestation as well,
04:06 the atmospheric cycles are changing,
04:10 microplastics are invading our oceans,
04:12 I mean there is a ton of data.
04:15 Now, what are we doing to avoid this change?
04:18 For me, that’s the question:
04:19 not if there is change or not,
04:20 because obviously there is and it’s radical,
04:22 but how are we going to avoid it?
04:24 How do we want to make that change?
04:28 Is it going to be through war, through destruction,
04:33 or are we going to renegotiate certain priorities and values?
04:40 I’m more in favour of the second option,
04:42 but the path that we are taking is the first.
04:44 We are not making decisions,
04:46 and so the consequences
04:49 are unleashed out of control
04:53 one after another.
04:58 The problem is also that the people
05:02 who are not making decisions
05:08 are clearly disconnected from any
05:14 basic ethical conditioning
05:16 in my view.
05:23 To ask for more information about something,
05:25 you have to know that you don’t have that information,
05:26 and that you need it
05:28 to be able to form a better opinion.
05:30 That’s why I insist that it’s important
05:32 to break down these barriers
05:36 and get to that information.
05:39 And cultural and artistic practices
05:43 are a vehicle for breaking that down.
05:45 Artists that work with science
05:47 in a profound way
05:49 are able to ask questions
05:52 in a way that other scientists don’t ask,
05:54 thereby moving scientific knowledge forward.
05:57 Asking these questions in a way
05:58 that puts it to the public,
06:00 in a way that scientific language doesn’t.
06:03 Well, that’s a very interesting field of work
06:06 that motivates me personally very much.
06:13 Last year, I did an exhibition in Barcelona
06:15 called ‘Ciencia fricción, vida entre especies compañeras’,
06:18 which we will repeat this year
06:19 at Bilbao’s Azkuna Zentroa,
06:23 and for me, one of the key takeaways
06:25 from this exhibition
06:25 is that it was hugely successful among the public,
06:27 when I as a curator
06:29 didn’t sacrifice any complexity at all
06:31 in its content.
06:33 I did try to make it accessible.
06:37 That is to say, my position is: “If somebody wants to explore this
06:40 I’m going to facilitate that as much as possible”.
06:44 Now, I’m not going to make things less complex than they are.
06:49 It has all that complexity,
06:50 and the public response was fantastic.
06:53 It had so much public success,
06:55 and that really gave me a lot to think about,
06:56 because the exhibition was full.
07:01 “People don’t go to see exhibitions anymore”.
07:02 Well, no. That’s not true.
07:05 It’s also not true
07:07 that content quality
07:09 is at odds with accessibility,
07:14 because that assumes people are idiots.
07:15 So, we’re going to create a context
07:18 that is accessible enough for anyone
07:20 to come explore these practices,
07:22 particularly if they are financed by public funds.
07:28 I’m very much interested in the work being done
07:30 through Tabakalera’s Medialab.
07:32 I think that they’re doing fantastic work,
07:34 and are able to bring together
07:36 many different interests and initiatives
07:39 that I think were latent in the region,
07:41 giving them a place to come together and recognise each other.
07:45 And that alone has great value.
07:48 This space,
07:49 as a meeting place
07:51 for individuals and groups
07:52 that are working on this, what we were saying:
07:55 citizen science, amateur science,
07:57 somewhat underground technology,
07:59 technological experimentation,
08:01 and the exchange of knowledge...
08:03 Having a space to find each other is essential,
08:05 because hybrid practices
08:07 are not easily recognised
08:09 in any of the other tidy boxes of culture,
08:12 artistic or cultural exhibition.
08:14 So, this Medialab space
08:16 is essential for that.
08:22 I’m quite critical of public powers,
08:24 but I’m also quite critical
08:25 of the creative and artistic community,
08:28 because I believe that we have
08:30 to take advantage as a responsible
08:34 representative of the space we occupy.
08:39 I believe that public authority’s disinterest in culture
08:42 beyond taking a photo on opening day, etc.,
08:45 not understanding what we provide,
08:48 is the result of us
08:51 having created a space with a certain degree of opacity.
08:55 So, of course, then we complain
08:57 that they don’t understand our value.
08:58 So, yes, being demanding of public authorities,
09:01 but also being demanding of the artistic community as well.
09:05 We’re not in the 20th century anymore,
09:07 we’re in a situation
09:08 of maximum social and political urgency.
09:12 If we as artists and creators
09:15 really want to be deserving
09:19 of this space that we defend,
09:21 of being essential activities,
09:24 then we have to get to work on doing so.
09:25 We can’t stand around in isolation.
09:27 We need a responsible artistic community
09:30 that is committed to what is happening.
Tabakalera-denbora | Vincent Maraval
09:44
Tabakalera-denbora | Uxue Alberdi
08:14
Tabakalera-denbora | Ted Hope 08:53
Tabakalera-denbora | Susanna Tesconi
09:20
Tabakalera-denbora | Ricardo Díez Muiño
11:15
Tabakalera-denbora | Niño de Elche 08:48
Tabakalera-denbora | Marcos García
08:49
Tabakalera-denbora | Jone San Martín
10:07
Tabakalera-denbora | Jon Cazenave 07:43
Tabakalera-denbora | Javier Pérez Iglesias
07:49
Tabakalera-denbora | Isabel Herguera
11:12
Tabakalera-denbora | Helena Taberna
08:28
Tabakalera-denbora | Frédéric Martel 09:04
Tabakalera-denbora | Eva Sangiorgi
07:55
Tabakalera-denbora | Dea Kulumbegashvili 09:47
Tabakalera-denbora | Christine Vachon 07:26