NACHO ROMAN
Ambient | Experimental | Sound Art

Twenty contemporary artists from different disciplines and generations participated in the first edition of Re_hacer (Remake in English), an exhibition project resulting from the dialogue established with potters from six active workshops that maintain this secular tradition in Portillo (Valladolid, Spain).

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The project is organised by the Néxodos collective, the Portillo Potters Association and the Craft Center of Castilla y León, with the collaboration of the Valladolid Provincial Council, the Portillo City Council and the Castile and León Craft Federation.  

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If doing is thinking, as Richard Sennet defends in "El Artesano", the need to redo arises, in the sense of rethinking the validity of traditional knowledge, the future of the rural environment and sustainable consumption, proposing a collective reflection from multiple disciplines.

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In this sense, the pottery tradition -is currently at risk of disappearing in Portillo due to a lack of generational change-is in tune with sustainable and local production due to the origin and durability of the materials.

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After an initial work of documentation on the past and present imprint of the potter's trade in the Valladolid town, a dialogue was proposed between 20 artists from different disciplines and generations with the active artisans.

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The process followed gives rise to an exhibition itinerary with works explicitly created for potters. Installations, photography, sculpture, sound art, painting, drawing and ceramics occupy the workspaces coexisting with the ordinary activity of the potters.

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As a contribution to "Re_hacer", I proposed the following composition:

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The relative value of the passage of time

[ Sound piece for two speakers. Field recording, modular synthesiser and Ableton live. Duration: 3'39” ]

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The motor of one of the pottery lathes installed at the end of the '40s and still fully operational is the pillar of the track—the motor as an image of resilience, something permanently present in pottery traditional.

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