TALLER EN BLANCO

To bring this beautiful challenge to life, we worked with a group of architects and artists called Taller enBlanco who were able to conceptually, aesthetically and technically tackle the proposal. The last one is crucial because the spot where the miracle took place—where the Virgen Blanca (White Virgin) turns and the dancers leap—is located on the pavement of a road with vehicular traffic. Which is why the artistic invention had to be on the ground, creating an urban piece of art.

Este equipo es Taller enBlanco, is a team of eight young architects who share a series of passions: art, architecture, and the thin line that exists between the two, a line that sometimes separates them but also, almost always, connects them like two sides of the same coin, like it does with this particular installation.

Project.

Ladanza by Taller en Blanco has a beautiful story behind it that you need to know if you want to understand the piece. This is how it all came about:
1 Kilómetro de Arte set it self a challenge for its 2018 edition:

“To raise awareness, through a work of art, of the place where the miracle of the Virgen Blanca (White Virgin) happened”.

This is perhaps the oldest tradition in Ventosa and it is remembered year after year by the dance performed in honour of the Virgin every summer since time immemorial. The streets of Ventosa hold a very significant route in terms of the sentiment and tradition of its inhabitants, the route that the procession of the Virgen Blanca (White Virgin) follows once a year.

The procession culminates when it stops at the most important place along the route, where it miraculously became so heavy that it could not be moved during an attempted robbery. However, this spot remains invisible to passers-by.

Taller enBlanco was called in to create an artistic installation for 1 Km de Arte to restore the importance of this site.

To this end, we came up with a two-dimensional design, which will be incorporated into the pavement of the road in such a way that it won’t disturb traffic in the area. Following an exhaustive study and taking the dance as a point of departure, we came to the conclusion that the number three has an exceptional symbolism: the dancers perform three jumps when they find themselves in front of the Virgin, which is turned in three full circles at this uniquely special spot.

We also wanted to incorporate an ephemeral factor, something we feel comfortable with, by designing a drawing with geometric motifs on top of the concrete circle. The idea is to provide continuity over time, so that different artists or the locals themselves can come and leave their mark on specific dates, thus giving it new life and leading to different initiatives that could result from these projects.

A workshop will be held on the last weekend of July, open to everyone in Ventosa, where prints will be designed on textile materials based on the winning proposal.

Process.

Ladanza is a work composed of a set of graphic representations that change according to the time of day. A system of circles that Taller enBlanco created by graphically summarising the elements of Ventosa’s dance – three circles, three materials and three colours, a reflection of the three jumpers the dancers make each time they come face to face with the White Virgin on the day the miracle is commemorated. A piece at ground level that leaves a record of the town’s most deeply rooted tradition, a way for the people of Ventosa to remember it and pass it down generation after generation. Moreover, it allows for additional intervention from time to time, since one of the circles is painted to be ephemeral, temporary, so that Ladanza will have a thousand and one lives.

Taller enBlanco worked for months on this piece. First by holding meetings with locals to research the miracle; later by summarising all the information gathered into the design; and finally, by involving all the people of Ventosa in the hands-on workshops scheduled at key moments in the life of Ventosa, such as the Mercado del Trato and the Semana Cultural (Cultural Week).

Inauguration.

We inaugurated Ladanza, a work by Taller enBlanco for Ventosa and its 1 Kilómetro de Arte initiative, on 29 September 2018.

Taller enBlanco is a group of young architects who create artistic projects that blend their discipline with sculpture, painting and photography from a conceptual and design perspective. This is how they have researched the oldest tradition in Ventosa, the Dance of the White Virgin, to offer us a work of art that leaves a physical record of this event that has been celebrated for around 500 years. A walk along the works, a conversation with Taller enBlanco and a tasting. You won’t be disappointed!