M.I.A.U.
M.I.A.U. Invitaiton to participate in MIAU, Mostra International d’Art Urbà. This project became the clean-up of an abandoned thermal water laundry… with the intention to returned it to the people as a public bathing pool. According to the memory of the residents of Caldes de Montbui, the thermal laundry (safareig) had been unused for approximately 25 years. Somanyprojects participated in MIAU and continued to use the safareig to soak with friends for a couple years. The space has sequentially been used in MIAU festivals in the years leading up to the present restoration of the space.
The space restored today: Els Banys Termals El Safareig
images of somanyprojects´ first encounter:
Homage to Alzheimer´s
My grandmother and my husband Ricard´s grandmother left this world with diffracted understandings of their surroundings. My nanny went her way with Alzheimer’s and Ricard´s avia went her way with dementia. The photo series with book is about trying to read underwater quotations of “great thinkers” that my mother sent to me while caring for her mother at home. My childhood connection to an immense body of saltwater came from my grandmother. Photos by Laia Ribé.
Selection of photos from series wearing Ricard´s Avia´s wedding dress as a representation of Dementia. The original idea was to make an animation loop of enterring and leaving the water. Photos series by Elena Kuroda.
Homeless Cart
Homeless carts. This is a couples’ storefront-home set that could have been used separately or jointly. The carts were created using the existing materials in the artist studio of the Can Font wing just before the factory space was closed for repairs and political consideration. Can Ricart was a place of contention due to commercial building desires and respect to patrimonial architectural history of the factory built in 1853. The section of the factory the artists had been using mysteriously burned down the day before the artists were allowed back into the factory. The carts were never removed.
Abandoned Cases
One day I began to notice the usual occurrence of abandoned suitcases around Barcelona. Perhaps it is because Barcelona is a tourist destination or just the revolving door of a city, or perhaps suitcases are another one of those intimate items that people don´t know how to dispose of… too many stories carried around inside. I began to use them as ways to throw out things from my workshop. I filled up suitcase after suitcase with the original goal of 92 (inspired by Peter Greenaway´s film The Tulse Luper Suitcases, a personal history of Uranium), but continued on to 99 after finding a book in the street by Einstein.
The atomic number of Einsteinium is 99.
Peep Gallery
Investigation of long-term abandoned spaces. This was an on going project of using old wool mattresses found on the sidewalk.
Bo Peep Gallery 2007. PUBLIC Tallers Oberts de Gracia (open workshops of Gracia, Barcelona).
Bo Peep Gallery 2008. Empty space in the neighborhood until last image in 2014 (owner of home unknown).
Bo Peep Gallery 2014, Permanently Closed. Homage to Salvem el Jardí.
Special thanks to Maria Solà.
The misspelling is thanks to the help of language barriers. She painted the named I yelled out while I was situating the sheep… Bo Peep Galery.