PROTOTIPOAK

Azkuna Zentroa presents PROTOTIPOAK, the International Meeting of New Artistic Forms. This international event, which takes place every two years as a biennale, seeks to introduce new forms and functions of art, through projects focused on different aspects of everyday life in the city, in collaboration with various local institutions, organisations, groups and individuals. This event, curated by Rosa Casado and Mike Brookes, revolves around a programme of artistic projects that will be presented between May 31 and June 3, and an exhibition that will open on May 31 and will continue until September 16, 2018.

PROTOTIPOAK continues and expands upon the work done in the “3, 2, 1, International Meeting of New Performing Arts.” It arose out of a desire to explore the nature, performativity and multiplicity of the social through art, and to contribute to its formation critically—from a poetic, aesthetic and political perspective. We are proposing an engagement with “place” as the central element of the project, which we understand not only as the scene in which life takes place—that is, as the container or context for action—but also as that which is constituted through the things we do. From this perspective of “place,” questions arise about what it might mean to live together. And what we begin to see is a world where organic and inorganic, natural and cultural, tangible and intangible agents and objects co-exist with one another. A complex place, in constant transformation.

PROTOTIPOAK proposes a series of local, national and international projects that will be created by artists throughout the city in collaboration with a variety of local partners, as well as an exhibition on social robotics. During four days, the projects will occupy different spaces within Azkuna Zentroa and a variety of locations in Bilbao. At the same time, the centre’s exhibition hall will be populated with interactive pieces that communicate with one another, with visitors and with the surrounding environment, generating a reactive space that is constantly changing and being transformed over the course of the three-month exhibition.

Projects
Corbeaux
Compagnie O / Bouchra Ouizguen (Morocco)
An intense performance in which the performers, dressed in black, emerge from the darkness and, like birds, move to a hypnotic rhythm. Ten local women have been selected who, along with the company’s own female performers, will evoke a horde of unique and unlikely crows.

Haircuts by Children
Mammalian Diving Reflex/Darren O’Donnell
A group of children from IES San Adrian BHI school will run the Háptica salon, where they will offer free haircuts after being trained as hairdressers.

El Cielo & La Cultura
Los Torreznos
Los Torreznos will present two performance works.

Museum of the Moon
Luke Jerram
This new touring artwork measures seven metres in diameter, and features detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface.

Nana, Concierto Para Durientes
Dr. Kurogo
A long nocturnal 8 hours concert for listeners who are awake, asleep or dozing.

Mirador centro de investigación
Camilla Téllez
Using a “practical pocket guide” and light-sound intervention into the area of the Town Hall Bridge, visitors are invited to explore the city from unusual perspectives.

Radio Show Consonni
consonni, Az’s resident collective
Consonni will perform a Radio Show focusing on feminist sci-fi, entitled Speech Sound. 

Martxaundi II
Azala
A four-day walk from Azala (Lasierra) to Azkuna Zentroa (Bilbao)—crossing rivers, valleys, mountains, paths, streets…

Fuera de Juego
Núria Güell
This action work invites people to play “hide-and-seek” with a home- and care-worker—a member of the city’s invisible work force.

…And the things we do
May 31–September 16, 2018

The projects shown during the exhibition are: Accomplice by Petra Gemeinboeck & Rob Saunders; Fish-Bird by Mari Velonaki; The Big Picture by Robotlab; Tele-Present Wind by David Bowen; Vincent and Emily by Carolin Liebl & Nikolas Schmid-Pfähler; Combover Jo and Mudbots - Robots Con Barro by Paul Granjon; and Wrekshop by Grajon & Tunipanea.