• item_info: Atheneum Mixed media Convent de Sant Agustí 2023
• description: <p class="" data-start="195" data-end="515"><em data-start="195" data-end="215">𝑨𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏𝒂𝒆𝒖𝒎</em> is a series of three collages created from a collection of photographs and materials sourced from various <em data-start="322" data-end="340">ateneus populars</em> and community archives. It is a visual and affective reconstruction of collective memory, one that questions where and how this memory is archived, preserved, and reactivated.</p> <p class="" data-start="517" data-end="802"><em data-start="517" data-end="535">Ateneus populars</em> were grassroots cultural centers rooted in working-class neighborhoods across Catalonia and Spain, spaces for education, debate, art, and mutual aid. These centers played a key role in the development of a cooperative, self-managed cultural model in the 20th century.</p> <p class="" data-start="804" data-end="1104">This project proposes a spatial shift from the traditional exhibition gallery to the back offices of the Convent de Sant Agustí Civic Center. The works are only visible to the center’s staff, turning the workplace into an exhibition site and inviting a reflection from within the institution itself.</p> <p class="" data-start="1106" data-end="1464"><em data-start="1106" data-end="1126">𝑨𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏𝒂𝒆𝒖𝒎</em> points to the neoliberal transformation of community spaces—from cooperatively run <em data-start="1210" data-end="1219">ateneus</em> to civic centers managed by cultural management companies. Rather than nostalgia, the work seeks to spark critical thought around how a collective, rooted, and cooperative cultural model has been dismantled—and perhaps, how it could be rebuilt.</p>