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Learning to Look at an Altarpiece. Urroz

         After a Walk, a New Idea

It is something that usually happens at Patrimonio para Jóvenes. And this time, it happens again. It was a nice June afternoon. It was the beginning of summer. We went to Urroz Villa, a little village not far away from Pamplona. It’s well known by its winter craft fair, its big square (one of the biggest in Navarra), the church and its important altarpiece. And of course, a great landscape.

Vista general de la plaza de Urroz

There, we met the “librero de Urroz”, not a normal bookseller. He works with old books and his house has a kind of magic atmosphere, as if its rooms and spaces have been imbued by the stories from his books. We spent there a couple of hours. Everybody was so excited with everything around.

So we decided to prepare a collaborative activity for October, far away October … Was it???

      Characters with Books at the Urroz Altarpiece

October arrived and here is our activity. At the house of the “Librero de Urroz” or Books with History (Libros con Historia) adults had an informal chat about art and books. A quiet atmosphere that nothing had to do with the color, hustle and bustle we had at the atrium with our paintings about the altarpiece.

First, children went inside the church and looked carefully at all the scenes and characters. It is not easy to understand and read and altarpiece. So, they need some help. How many people can you see? How many are holding books? How are they? If you don’t know, can you imagine or share your idea? What kind of book are these people reading or holding at their hands?

Personajes con libro en el retablo de Urroz

They also could look at the altarpiece with binoculars.

        Learning from Children’s Answers

In these activities, one of the goals is to listen to the people, in this case, to the children. We listen to them to help them fight the fear of making a fool of themselves. They need to feel comfortable while chatting, and to learn without any discomfort if any answer was wrong. Make them realize that heir point of view is always appreciated.

      Acknowledgements

Thanks a lot to the “Librero de Urroz”, to the major of Urroz Villa, as well as the parish of La Asunción. Thanks to all the families who came with their children to join us.

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FASHION ON THE RETROCHOIR

Have you ever been at the Burgos Cathedral? It is a great monument, with an “unmistakable profile” (as it’s said on Wikipedia) that is well worth visiting. It is so big, so majestic, and so outstanding, that you can easily get overwhelmed by so much beauty. In consequence, you can take for granted a lot of important details.

An example of these overseen jewels is the retrochoir, right in front of the wonderful chapel of Condestables. It’s a shame that people don’t spend enough time there to pay attention to this masterpiece of sculpture. If you want more information about the artist and his work go here

Consuelo Sanz de Bremond LLoret, a specialist on antique clothing was the one who proposed talking about fashion on the retrochoir. Specifically, hat fashion. In fact, most of the characters seen here are wearing hats with such charm and delicacy that they can easily inspire fashion nowadays.

This observation let us organize the creativity practice we proposed to the pupils at the Art and Design School in Burgos: To create new models of hats for today based on those we can see at the retrochoir . And we hope they make it!

With this event, we wanted to introduce in an official way Patrimonio para Jóvenes at the city of Burgos. Even if we displayed some activities before, we have never had a formal introduction.

During the days before, and even the very day of this event, it was broadcasted on newspapers, radio and TV. Check out if you want here (go to 17,30 program time)

On behalf of the team of Patrimonio para Jóvenes, I want to thank Consuelo for joining us at Burgos and for her dedication of more than three months to study carefully each model on each head of the characters.

After the talk, everybody has learnt how to look at a retrochoir with a new point of view. First the superb scene of the life of Christ : The road to the Calvary, and more scenes from the passion. And more important, we discovered how carefully Felipe Vigarny described each person at the story by drawing amazing faces, amazing clothes and charming and sometimes exotic hats.

Welcome to the Cathedral of Burgos and get ready to take off your hat!

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European Heritage Days in Genevilla, Navarra

sello-mec-v2-smAt the end of May, when we visited Genevilla, I knew we had to come back. Its heritage, landscape and friendly people are well worth visiting again.

But I never imagined that the visit would come so soon.

               A newspaper advertisement  

I was reading a local newspaper when I came across news from the government of Navarra. They invited the city halls of the different villages of the region to participate at The European Heritage Days. One of the conditions was to present the program with a cultural association.

Patrimonio para jovenes had kept in touch with the people of Genevilla and offered our proposal: A workshop about the altarpiece of the parish. An awesome, stunning piece of art from Renaissance.

                    And the day arrives! 

And the 1st of October, there we were. And we couldn’t believe how many people came. It was a joy. But we were certainly dealing with a challenge: to talk to such a big group with a range of age we are not used to.

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Everybody was very interested and some of them looked carefully with bicoulars. So they appreciated the details from sculptures and how they were carved and polychromed.

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             The children  

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For children we prepared some big papers with the designs from the friezes of the altarpiece. Kids were looking at the altarpiece first and then they colored in the way they preferred. They had fun. By the way, thank you to the team that came as volunteers to take care of them.

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                      And the party 

After visiting the altarpiece, we had appetizers courtesy of the village council. It was a great time to talk, find old friends and make new ones.

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Here is a picture with some of us. It was such a cute, nice, friendly morning at Genevilla.

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And here you have the links to some websites that can be helpful if you want to visit this area :

http://www.turismo.navarra.es/eng/home/

http://www.turismotierraestella.com/

 

http://www.turismo.navarra.es/esp/organice-viaje/recurso/Localidad/2670/Viana.htm

http://www.alavaturismo.eus/index.php/es/

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Nicolás Alba, the craftsman

logo-mecnaPatrimonio para jóvenes is a project focused on helping to discover the hideen places (in terms of art and cultural heritage) from young people, especially for foreign students. And today, her you have an expemple; Nicolas Alba’s workshop, in the midddle of the beautiful landscape of Valle de Yerri 

To meet this craftsman, not this artist ( he defined himself as a craftsman) you have to leave the motorway and drive for small and charming roads . Go slow, only slow you came come across the creativity .

En el campo

Nicolas works with iron, and the iron in his hands looks like silk, meaning softness and light. You can also find sculptures inside a box with labeled “Rain and Wind” . He also works as a scenographer, an indeed during the day of our visit Nicolas was very busy working on a new theatrical production.

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His workshop is full of objects like masks, gloves, jars filled with small pieces of iron, and the sculptures big and small as well as bridges.

Máscaras

Built bridges, iron bridges, bridges are like a lifestyle , an attitude, a behavior. We all need to create ways of communications with others, discover means to avoid isolation, fear, unbridgeable steps.

Nicolas, a very shy man, is full of sensitivity and during our visit a new bridge was built, one of friendly conversation, empathy, and the joy of discovering this kind of spark and light inside the creative moment. That’s not forgetting that a “creative moment” only appears after the darkness of many hours of work which sometimes seem sterile , even sad .

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The informal chat and questions from the team was great. Everybody was interested about how an idea arrives, what happens if people don’t like a new sculpture shown in an exhibition, or if someone understand it with a very different meaning or point of view from which it was created.

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At the end of the visit we shared a very Spanish typical food: “Tortilla de patata” or spanish omelette. It was not a very long visit and not very far from Pamplona, but it was a deep experience of communication, creativity and friendship.

Please don’t forget to check out Nicolas’s website and the one of the Valle de Yerri. See you soon!