El Carpio, in Cordoba, Big Donkey’s new home
-The “Burro Grande” or Big Donkey, a public sculpture created by Fernando Sánchez Castillo for La noche en blanco, will travel to the town of El Carpio in the province of Cordoba.
- The jury, consisting of the work’s author, Fernando Sánchez Castillo, the guest curator of La noche en blanco, Rafael Doctor, the curator and art critic Octavio Zaya, and the director of La noche en blanco, Pablo Berástegui, was particularly impressed by El Carpio’s constant commitment to contemporary art and with the site chosen to display the piece.
- The sculpture will be removed from its current location in Atocha this very day to begin its journey to Cordoba.
Madrid, 4 September 2009
Burro Grande (Big Donkey), the sculpture created by Fernando Sánchez Castillo for La noche en blanco 2009, leaves its current location in Atocha today on the way to its new home in El Carpio, Cordoba, in accordance with the jury’s decision. As its members pointed out, “Over the years, El Carpio has shown a strong commitment to contemporary art despite its limited resources, and the town offers an ideal location for this sculpture.” The donkey will be placed alongside a highway interchange where the A-4 freeway passes through the lands owned by the Ducal House of Alba.
The town, situated about 30 kilometers from the city of Cordoba, has just over 4,000 inhabitants. Since 2002, it has hosted a program of artistic interventions in the natural and urban landscape known as “Scarpia”, and the event’s various editions have boasted the participation of artists such as Daniel Canogar, Maider López, Rogelio López Cuenca and Fernando Sánchez Castillo himself. Moreover, El Carpio has plans to create a public art archive center, and next year’s edition of “Scarpia” will be called “Art: Flora and Fauna”. El Carpio has also proved that “its inhabitants have a special bond with the donkey, a bond of affection but also one of nostalgia for this faithful working companion used by many of the people who live in the town today,” in the words of the organizers. In addition, the Cordovan donkey is currently one of the region’s few native species in danger of extinction.
Fernando Sánchez Castillo, whose works often reinterpret Spanish history and symbols, has commented on more than one occasion that, “unlike other Spanish animal-symbols such as the bull or the horse, the donkey represents the everyday lives of simple folk, hard work and perseverance.”
With the fourth edition of La noche en blanco, the city of Madrid has reaffirmed its commitment to art and culture
The gift of a night in Madrid
- The city was the indisputable protagonist of the night with a massive turnout of “passers-by” – over 800,000 were in the streets at 12:30 am
- Nearly 140,000 people gathered together on Madrid’s Gran Vía at 12:30 am to admire the special light show created for the occasion by the artist Óscar Vázquez with his installation Caminos de Luz (Ways of Light).
- Blanca Li’s proposal, Baila Conmigo (Dance with Me), attracted nearly 100,000 dance students all along the Paseo del Prado. The class ended at 1:30 am with 43,000 people dancing in Plaza de Cibeles, which for a time became a huge outdoor night club.
- The Plaza de Oriente, with a turnout of over 60,000 people, was also among the most visited spots this night thanks to the street performance of La Terremoto de Alcorcón and a Japanese film series.
- Aitor Saraiba and his team of healing artists had time to give away almost 3,000 curative drawings in various spots around the city.
Madrid, 20 September 09
For the fourth consecutive year, the city of Madrid has fulfilled its commitment to culture by participating in a new edition of La noche en blanco. On this night, the casual passer-by was more than ever the true protagonist, with over 800,000 people gathered in the streets of the city center by 12:30 am.
At 9 pm, the 30,000 balloons printed with mini-poems by Benjamín Prado and Ajo fired the starter gun for a night that featured a total of 196 activities and the involvement of 276 institutions.
This release of flying poetry attracted a crowd of 25,000 people in Madrid’s Plaza Mayor. This turnout was a hint of what was to follow, on a night characterized by citizen participation and an eagerness to be surprised.
The Plaza de España became the night’s most visited spot thanks to the National Finals of the Red Bull Cockfights, attracting over 170,000 people.
Madrid’s Gran Vía was also among the most popular streets of the evening thanks to Óscar Vázquez’s light installation, Caminos de Luz, which drew a crowd of over 140,000 spectators at 12:30 am.
The Prado-Recoletos intersection turned into an immense dance academy offering instruction in a wide variety of styles. At 12:30 am, 100,000 people were already involved in the activity, which culminated at 1:30 am in Plaza de Cibeles with a macro dance party shared by 43,000 people.
“The gift” was the leit motiv of La noche en blanco ’09, and many gifts were made on this special night. Among them were the nearly 3,000 curative drawings that Aitor Saraiba and his team of sketch artists were able to give away throughout the night.
The Film Circuit, which placed four screens in four squares in the Chueca district, attracted nearly 12,000 film-loving spectators.
Other venues that enjoyed an excellent turnout include the Botanical Gardens with over 12,000 visitors, the Royal Palace with 10,000, the Fine Arts Circle with 9,0000, and the National Library with 8,800.
A problem-free night
Once again, the magnificent response and exemplary conduct of Madrid’s citizens characterized La noche en blanco; despite the large crowds and the numerous activities that took place, the number of incidents reported was incredibly low.
Ten thousand drawings to Heal Madrid
One of the activities of La noche en blanco that best exemplified the spirit of giving adopted as the theme of La noche en blanco 2009 was Sanar Madrid (Heal Madrid), a proposal directed by the artist Aitor Saraiba which involved giving away nearly ten thousand drawings created by amateur and experienced artists to the citizens of Madrid.
These drawings were created on the spot and exclusively for each citizen in a dozen squares around the city. Aitor Saraiba defines these drawings as curative, because the group of nearly one hundred artists who participated in the action, seated at tables set up for the occasion, listened to and interpreted the anxieties, fears, concerns and longings of the citizens and captured them in the drawings, which were later given to the people who had inspired them.
The artists of Sanar Madrid are still active on their Facebook page. Visit them at: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/sanarmadrid?ref=ts
The Gift
This year La noche en blanco revolved around a theme that inspired the main artistic proposals: The Gift, understood as the essential basis of the creative act. Every work of art is born of the creator’s need to relate to the other. The following text by Rafael Doctor explains the full scope of the links between creation, the gift and La noche en blanco.
“In a world whose material structure is on the verge of collapse, the need for art is a pillar that can ensure the survival of our own lives and emotions.
Beyond the purpose and use it has been given in a society such as ours, art remains fixed in the basic intentions that originated it. It is time for us to look back to its origins, to what generates it and gives it meaning, so that we will realize that, despite all the noise, its commitment to the human soul is still intact.
It is a wonderful time for returning to the original language of things and for realizing that art is the space of non-rational communication where magic becomes meaningful and where generosity and hope are the dominant notes. The gift reveals itself as the essential basis of anyone who creates. The artist, rather than being a legend or a genius, wants to be a magician who facilitates a more profound communication between things and persons, between time and its habitability, between matter and the soul.
Thus, the gift emerges as the original fruit which brings order to an inner need to transcend the world, to find valid meaning in it, to happily and fully inhabit it.
Our goal for this Noche en blanco is to make it a place where experiences with art are simple yet direct and solid, where the spectacular takes a back seat to the simple and profound, and where the individual is positively represented and affected. We seek an approach that uses the basic sensorial aspects inherent to artistic creation to generate a flow of communication that inspires people to think and sense their own role in the world where they live.
This Noche en blanco is generated with the intention of bringing new meaning and depth to the spectacle that it already is by virtue of its very existence.
Each and every one of the actions undertaken will attempt to seek a precise communication with each spectator, with the ultimate intention of making them participants and protagonists of a world which, now more than ever, needs new and utopian options capable of preserving a shared dream of human progress.
With very few elements and at very little expense, we will aim to broadcast a participatory and hopeful message on a night which, in just a few short years, has become a true experiential festival and a highlight of the city’s social calendar.”
Rafael Doctor Roncero
