MELISA LÓPEZ
Possibilities of being a cabin
The concept of the cabin automatically references the possibilities of habitation, of protection, of creating a place, and of isolation. For this project, Melisa has travelled throughout Toulouse, tracing out a cartography based upon links established by the plant-life in urban space. Taking Le BBB Centre d ’Art as her point of departure, she suggests a different way of delimiting space, and of establishing a new centre and new peripheries.
During the residency, Melisa, with the mediation of Le BBB Centre d ’Art, was given the opportunity to engage in conversations with Jean-Luc Camus, the Borderouge Museum Garden’s scientific mediator; Alain Chainel, member of the Citizens’ Council of the northern districts of Toulouse; The Toulouse Heritage Studies Library; Fatiha EL Babili, researcher and pedagogical manager of the Henri Gaussen Botanical Garden-Toulouse III University-Paul Sabatier, and the members of the collective Micro-Forests, Toulouse in transition, who helped her form close links with the environment.
Based on this artistic research residency in Toulouse and Barcelona, (at La Escocesa) on Thursday March 18th, she staged a virtual presentation of the early results of the investigation, in the form of a story and several images, as a way of returning to the experience.
Melisa López
She graduated in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona, and studied the master’s course in Artistic Production and Research at the same faculty. She was a resident at the Fabra i Coats Fàbrica de Creació in Barcelona, has recently exhibited at the JCE Biennale d’Art Contemporain 2019-21, and last year received the FormArte Scholarship in Fine Arts at the Colegio de España in Paris of the Spanish Ministry of Culture. Her current work involves an analysis of artistic creation using research into the archive of protected trees, thanks to the Sala d'Art Jove 2020 Creation Grant.
VIDEO ART AND TERRITORY
Idensitat has created an audiovisual piece collecting interviews with participants in this project, from people in the organisation itself to those artists selected in the open call. This video functions both as documentary material, and at the same time as a device for critical reflection and research on the subject of "the transperiphery" and artistic residencies as a working methodology.