| Start date: Februrary 2011
Duration: 3 days
Location: La Fábrica de Toda la Vida
Budget: 300 euros
Funded by: Colectivo Conceptuarte
Organised by: Colectivo Conceptuarte
Agents involved: Todo por la praxis and Straddle3
Materials: Concrete silo, timber and lots of bolts and screws
Public/private land: Public
Type of use: Temporary transfer
Self-evaluation: Great collaborative work by the Arquitecturas Colectivas network. We are waiting for the bar to open in order to assess its operation.
La Fábrica de Toda la Vida is project that revolves around setting up an alternative cultural centre in an abandoned former cement works in the town of Los Santos de Maimona, Extremadura. It is run by the collective Conceptuarte. The idea is to create a space in which to experiment with alternative dynamics of artistic production and distribution. The site-specific aspect is a significant, because unlike the mainstream art scene, this project places value on the regional context. The project is also about reclaiming and refurbishing an abandoned space, instead of following the worn out trend of producing yet more meaningless empty spaces.
Our contribution to this impressive project is inherent to its methodology: the communal production of spaces and contents. Participants at the ‘Autorroscantes’ conference organised by Conceptuarte in February 2011 came up with the idea of organising workshops to experiment with collective production in this sense. Several collectives were invited to carry out interventions in the cement works: Recetas urbanas and Asilo worked on improving the industrial premises that have been allocated to the project. Todo por la praxis and Straddle3 coordinated a workshop to improve and equip the outdoor space.
The aim of the workshop was to implement the Bar La Fábrica project, reclaiming an old, unused cement silo. The plan was to recycle this pre-fabricated element, which was already on the premises, restoring and fitting it out as a bar unit outside the industrial buildings. Two openings were made in the silo: one for the counter, and another to be used as a door in the back section. Workshop participants fitted out the silo, built a counter for the bar, customized it, and created some new street furniture elements for the new unit.
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