Art, games and sport: Març Rabal and her first year of Espais C Art

This school year, 2024-2025, at Chiquita Room we have embarked on a new phase within the Espais C programme, acting as a mediating entity at the Mossèn Jacint Verdaguer School in Poble-sec, with resident artist Març Rabal. Espais C is a programme promoted by the Barcelona Institute of Culture (ICUB) and the Education Consortium, in collaboration with the Autonomous University of Barcelona and coordinated by Experimentem amb l’Art, which links artists with public primary schools through two-year residencies, thus bringing contemporary creation closer to the educational environment.

Since October, we have been shaping a space for artistic experimentation where collage, contemporary art and physical play intertwine in a natural and lively way. Març works with diverse languages and accessible materials, favouring an open, dynamic and collaborative practice. This has given rise to proposals such as “Exercissors” (a play on words that makes us think of possibilities, scissors, drawings, exercise, sport), puzzle creation, the use of magnetic boards, handmade kites and, most recently, a project involving wooden paddles decorated with portraits of the students themselves.

Over the course of these months, we have made four visits to Chiquita Room, where the students have been able to talk directly with Març, but also with artists Xavi Rodríguez Martín and Blanca Viñas, as part of the exhibition Manual de instrucciones para nada [Instruction Manual for Nothing]. Xavi led a drawing workshop using tracing paper, and Blanca offered two sessions using analogue photography and slides. The students also attended a guided tour of the exhibition Cielito lindo with the curator, Cristina Arribas, followed by a collage workshop with its postcards.

The project grows with each meeting, fuelled by the desire to create collectively and listen to one another. Through this shared experience, bonds of trust and moments of exchange are being created that allow questions to be raised and encourage dialogue both inside and outside the classroom. Valuable spaces have been created to build bridges between school work and the exhibition context, fostering conversations about artistic practices, creative processes and topics such as identity and emotions from a sensitive perspective.

We are thrilled with everything that has been built over these months. We are staying —and repeating— to continue growing together during the 2025-2026 school year.

Thank you to everyone who makes this possible.

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Espais C is a programme run by the Barcelona Institute of Culture and the Barcelona Education Consortium, with the participation of five schools, 39 artists and six mediation organisations. Chiquita Room is joining this year as a mediation space at the Mossèn Jacint Verdaguer School.

Photos by Pauline Köhlen