www.betalocal.org
www.betalocal.org/sessions
www.betalocal.org/lapractica
Summer Session: The Walking Seminar
July 1–21, 2013
Application Deadline: May 1st
Notification: May 8th
The walking seminar is a three-week seminar taught by artist Beatriz Santiago Muñoz and geographer Javier Arbona with other artists and individuals in Puerto Rico, developing art practices in response to the changing landscape, its social and political uses, and its representation through visual and other means. The seminar also focuses on direct observation and interaction at a human scale as an essential method for understanding these processes. We will set out walking from San Juan through the eastern coast of Puerto Rico, make a three-day visit to the island of Vieques, and return to San Juan through the mountains three weeks later. Throughout the route, and on sites where we will stay for two to three days, we will be paying attention to the visual and aesthetic character of the path, informal food production, tourist as well as military and post-military land use, and a site’s land rescue histories and traces. While exploring and making meaning through use and play, we will simultaneously pay attention to our own work as a result of our extended walk and exploration. Each seminar participant will propose an approach to the walk and a specific way of looking or purpose that will naturally overlap with others during those three weeks. Though working collectively is not necessary, the structure and method of the seminar demands communal work and solidarity, as we will be undertaking a collective adventure. A willingness to embrace the unexpected is essential. There is a 12-person limit to the seminar.
The seminar is anchored in the specific geography, local knowledge, emerging art practices, and social and political conditions of Puerto Rico. The island’s exuberant tropical ecology coexists with environmental devastation, institutional mimesis and decay, militarized and post-military spaces, as well as a growing movement to understand and transform these conditions.
Details on tuition and housing and application process here: www.betalocal.org/sessions
La Práctica 2013–14
Application deadline: June 1st 2013
Notification: July 1st 2013
La Práctica is a nine-month interdisciplinary arts program invested in restoring a sense of local awareness and discourse. Successful applicants are expected to develop a project from concept to full execution throughout the duration of the program. The opportunity is open to artists, architects, designers, cultural producers in any field, and/or people interested in reframing their practice within an arts discourse and within the context of Puerto Rico. Beta-Local (the overarching organization through which La Práctica operates) is a non-for-profit organization with three programs: La Práctica (announced herein), The Harbor (international residency program) La Ivan Illich (open platform through which members of the community can propose or sign up for a class designed according to their own specific interests). All of these programs overlap and influence each other. For instance, people in La Práctica engage with people in The Harbor through studio visits, discussions, impromptu collaborations and in many other unforeseen ways. People in The Harbor and La Práctica convene others around classes and workshops through La Ivan Illich, and/or join other classes being offered during their stay. Beta-Local places particular stress on “thinking through doing” and equally acknowledges the importance of research and production.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This program is conducted in Spanish.
For more details please visit www.betalocal.org/lapractica.
Beta-Local is a non-profit space in San Juan, Puerto Rico founded in 2009 by curator Michy Marxuach and artists Tony Cruz and Beatriz Santiago Muñoz. Its mission is to promote and support art and aesthetic inquiry through education, exhibition, and production programs.
Contact: [email protected]
