UR at “Futuros concretos”

On Thursday, 28 January 2021, we will share our research experience through the Universal Declaration of Urban Rights in Conde Duque (Madrid). In the session “The art of research” of the workshop Concrete Futures directed by Adolfo Estalella (UCM), who invites us to enter into dialogue with Lila Insúa. Admission is free until full capacity is reached, but you must download the ticket in advance from the Conde Duque website.

“The Art of Research”

Contrary to the creative autonomy of art, research is often conceived as an activity dominated by method and rigor, as if both were separate and exclusive domains. In this session, we propose to suture this separation by tracing the inventive dimension of any research, in dialogue with the modes of research developed within art and the material research forms specific to architecture. We will do this in dialogue with Lila Insúa, artist and professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the UCM, and Aurora Adalid, architect and member of the Zuloark collective.

Concrete Futures opens as a stable research workshop at Conde Duque dedicated to exploring the city and the multiple forms of urban living, proposing an unusual dialogue between three disciplines: art, architecture, and anthropology.

From climate change to unexpected pandemics, our future has become a problematic issue, but in recent times, amidst the abundant ominous diagnoses, we find glimpses that suggest the possibility of a different future. This is proposed by those who take charge of the fate of our climate, those who open us up to gender diversity, the descendants of insurgents, and those who cultivate other urban natures…

Concrete Futures opens a space to collectively think with these exercises of speculation on a different life and to weave complicity with those who invent other ways of living together. But taking charge of the future also requires overcoming the disciplinary corset from which we think about the city. Concrete Futures proposes an experimental collaboration between art, architecture, and anthropology, a space to share the material imagination of architecture, the performative creativity of art, and the conceptual aspiration of anthropology (and other social sciences).

Concrete Futures is, ultimately, an invitation to collectively explore the present and share in common the speculations of a different future.

The members of the research workshop will be selected through a public call, will work internally for 8 months, and will have open presentations to the public by invited speakers, including Maral Kekejian (artistic director), Alberto Corsín (CSIC), Lila Insúa (UCM Fine Arts), Aurora Adalid (Zuloark), and Uriel Fogué (Elii). There is also consideration for a final meeting to present the work carried out. Concrete Futures is directed by Adolfo Estalella (UCM) and is a project of xcol inventory.

Concrete Futures is directed by Adolfo Estalella (UCM), is a project of xcol inventory, and has the collaboration of Marta Badiola, Enrique Espinosa, and Natasa Lekkou.