Real State Clay is an open and participatory investigation, aimed at a non-specialist audience, which seeks to explore and recover alternative ways of relating to land, a largely hidden, fragile and neglected element.
Taking the languages and aesthetics of real estate, and using an ironic and sharp perspective, it approaches speculation and the logics behind the process of ‘giving value to land’ from a satirical point of view. Instead of privatising and distancing citizens from the ‘sovereignty’ of land, Real State Clay tries to provide tools and offer new readings with which to relate to land. Through the arts of pottery and a catalogue of tools, Real State Clay aims to enable citizens, or in other words, the participants in the workshops in which Real State Clay takes shape, to understand and attend to the transformations of the soil and its environment.
From an ironic and critical perspective, it addresses speculation and the logics that enable the control and privatisation of land, generating specific readings that, in turn, increasingly alienate the citizenry. Situated ceramics and a catalogue of analytical tools become means to explore, understand and attend to the transformations of the land and its environment, facilitating new forms of…appropriation and relationship with new urban commons. re/communicate/relate….
Concept
The Real State Clay workshop consists of four sessions in which La Cuarta Piel ‘set up a real estate agency’ and ‘train new real estate agents’ through a practical real estate appraisal case study. In the first session, the agents receive theoretical training; in the second session, they inspect a plot of land and dig a hole in order to reveal the secrets that go on underground; in the third session, they appraise, classify and obtain clay from the collected soil; and in the fourth session, they take action, shaping the land and creating a new narrative and ecological ‘surplus value’.
Thus, during the development of the sessions, the agents are generating knowledge, fostering alliances and actively participating in the construction of the city. Working with situated ceramics and a complete catalogue of tools for analysis and knowledge, which become a means to trace more affective and closer readings… and collective appropriation.
Situated ceramics is a response to a need for territorial sovereignty. The possibility of working and knowing the local land together with its territory, when in most cases access to this material is restricted by the private ownership of the land, gives a more communal perspective of this same resource.
Thanks to the residency at LoCS+AADK the collective has been able to bring together various analytical tools from fields such as geology, construction, engineering, chemistry, agriculture and traditional pottery. The aim is to interpret and work with the soil in a more everyday, accessible and meaningful way. On the one hand, from a practical perspective, these tools allow us to get to know the material, to make responsible use of the land and to understand its behaviour, addressing the difficulties arising from the compositional complexity of the soil. This, in turn, will help us to work the material. On the other hand, on a more reflective and broader level, these tools allow us to understand territories in their historical, geopolitical and ecological context. They help us to recognise the genesis of territories, their compositions, their ecosystems and, consequently, to reflect on how we relate to them: how they behave, and how human and environmental dynamics influence the territory and its materials. In this way, we obtain a deeper and broader reading of the soil and its environment.
The context
Starting from the framework of the residencies – the reading of the interrelationships between planetary changes and the local landscape – La Cuarta Piel tried to understand how Real State Clay could help us understand the vast water system around the Segura river.
The artists took some time to understand the Segura River as an ally, a complex system that traverses and transforms the territory, while at the same time being transformed by socio-political processes and technology and socio-ecological and economic realities. From this perspective, water – like land – is understood as an index, a sensor and a means to investigate the interconnected processes that shape the landscape.
In order to relate water and land, the artists/researchers work from the perspective of river basins. The transport of sediment through river basins is a natural process that has always shaped territories. Materials from various natural activities on the earth’s surface move continuously through river channels. This movement occurs both in areas close to the river and in more distant regions, from where sediment arrives via gullies and channels. The result is a dynamic mixture of mineral, organic and inorganic particles, which over time are transformed and deposited, forming structures and modifying the course of the river up to its natural mouth.
However, this essential cycle of the territory is being altered. Interventions such as the urbanisation of watercourses or the massive extraction of aggregates, among others, have interrupted the natural flow of sediments towards the coasts. These sediments, which used to move with the current, are now trapped in reservoirs and other artificial structures. It is estimated that one third of the global sediment flux is retained in this way, reducing the amount transported by half compared to 60 years ago. Which phenomena accompany the land and continue its natural cycle and which others agitate and respond to other, non-natural phenomena?
In this context, the research sought to find new narratives to make visible the spatial complexities of watersheds: what forms could be made with sediments extracted from the Segura river or from tributaries, ravines or places of potential sediment dragging (silt, fine sand and clays) to think about gravity and the currents that link apparently unlinked territories but which have a common history; how will the continued extraction of sediments affect the geological future, interrupting the natural cycle that defines and transforms our environment?
In this process, the artists/researchers set out to carry out an analysis of the different types of sediments that could be found in various natural or non-natural formations, such as riverbeds, gullies and esplanades. These areas represent key points in the movement of water, as they act as channels for the transport of materials.
One of the materials they worked with was the material extracted from under the main bridge at Blanca. This paste is sedimented and compacted, drying out until it fragments into clay flakes. These flakes reveal the different floods of the river and function as a kind of stratigraphy, identifiable by the chromatic differences between the strata. These colour variations reflect slight differences in the materials carried, caused by natural events, such as rainfall upstream, or by human causes, such as the dumping of waste or the extraction of sediments that are then displaced by the flow of water.
La Cuarta Piel – Colectivo
Alicante based artists
Ana Moure Rosende & Andrea Moreno Orts
Critical Spatialities Residency Programm 2024
Blanca, Murcia – Spain
La cuarta Piel
Memoria de la Residencia en Español [PDF]
Real State Clay is an open and participatory investigation, aimed at a non-specialist audience, which seeks to explore and recover alternative ways of relating to land, a largely hidden, fragile and neglected element.
Taking the languages and aesthetics of real estate, and using an ironic and sharp perspective, it approaches speculation and the logics behind the process of ‘giving value to land’ from a satirical point of view. Instead of privatising and distancing citizens from the ‘sovereignty’ of land, Real State Clay tries to provide tools and offer new readings with which to relate to land. Through the arts of pottery and a catalogue of tools, Real State Clay aims to enable citizens, or in other words, the participants in the workshops in which Real State Clay takes shape, to understand and attend to the transformations of the soil and its environment.
From an ironic and critical perspective, it addresses speculation and the logics that enable the control and privatisation of land, generating specific readings that, in turn, increasingly alienate the citizenry. Situated ceramics and a catalogue of analytical tools become means to explore, understand and attend to the transformations of the land and its environment, facilitating new forms of…appropriation and relationship with new urban commons. re/communicate/relate….
Concept
The Real State Clay workshop consists of four sessions in which La Cuarta Piel ‘set up a real estate agency’ and ‘train new real estate agents’ through a practical real estate appraisal case study. In the first session, the agents receive theoretical training; in the second session, they inspect a plot of land and dig a hole in order to reveal the secrets that go on underground; in the third session, they appraise, classify and obtain clay from the collected soil; and in the fourth session, they take action, shaping the land and creating a new narrative and ecological ‘surplus value’.
Thus, during the development of the sessions, the agents are generating knowledge, fostering alliances and actively participating in the construction of the city. Working with situated ceramics and a complete catalogue of tools for analysis and knowledge, which become a means to trace more affective and closer readings… and collective appropriation.
Situated ceramics is a response to a need for territorial sovereignty. The possibility of working and knowing the local land together with its territory, when in most cases access to this material is restricted by the private ownership of the land, gives a more communal perspective of this same resource.
Thanks to the residency at LoCS+AADK the collective has been able to bring together various analytical tools from fields such as geology, construction, engineering, chemistry, agriculture and traditional pottery. The aim is to interpret and work with the soil in a more everyday, accessible and meaningful way.
On the one hand, from a practical perspective, these tools allow us to get to know the material, to make responsible use of the land and to understand its behaviour, addressing the difficulties arising from the compositional complexity of the soil. This, in turn, will help us to work the material.
On the other hand, on a more reflective and broader level, these tools allow us to understand territories in their historical, geopolitical and ecological context. They help us to recognise the genesis of territories, their compositions, their ecosystems and, consequently, to reflect on how we relate to them: how they behave, and how human and environmental dynamics influence the territory and its materials. In this way, we obtain a deeper and broader reading of the soil and its environment.
The context
Starting from the framework of the residencies – the reading of the interrelationships between planetary changes and the local landscape – La Cuarta Piel tried to understand how Real State Clay could help us understand the vast water system around the Segura river.
The artists took some time to understand the Segura River as an ally, a complex system that traverses and transforms the territory, while at the same time being transformed by socio-political processes and technology and socio-ecological and economic realities. From this perspective, water – like land – is understood as an index, a sensor and a means to investigate the interconnected processes that shape the landscape.
In order to relate water and land, the artists/researchers work from the perspective of river basins. The transport of sediment through river basins is a natural process that has always shaped territories. Materials from various natural activities on the earth’s surface move continuously through river channels. This movement occurs both in areas close to the river and in more distant regions, from where sediment arrives via gullies and channels. The result is a dynamic mixture of mineral, organic and inorganic particles, which over time are transformed and deposited, forming structures and modifying the course of the river up to its natural mouth.
However, this essential cycle of the territory is being altered. Interventions such as the urbanisation of watercourses or the massive extraction of aggregates, among others, have interrupted the natural flow of sediments towards the coasts. These sediments, which used to move with the current, are now trapped in reservoirs and other artificial structures. It is estimated that one third of the global sediment flux is retained in this way, reducing the amount transported by half compared to 60 years ago.
Which phenomena accompany the land and continue its natural cycle and which others agitate and respond to other, non-natural phenomena?
In this context, the research sought to find new narratives to make visible the spatial complexities of watersheds: what forms could be made with sediments extracted from the Segura river or from tributaries, ravines or places of potential sediment dragging (silt, fine sand and clays) to think about gravity and the currents that link apparently unlinked territories but which have a common history; how will the continued extraction of sediments affect the geological future, interrupting the natural cycle that defines and transforms our environment?
In this process, the artists/researchers set out to carry out an analysis of the different types of sediments that could be found in various natural or non-natural formations, such as riverbeds, gullies and esplanades. These areas represent key points in the movement of water, as they act as channels for the transport of materials.
One of the materials they worked with was the material extracted from under the main bridge at Blanca. This paste is sedimented and compacted, drying out until it fragments into clay flakes. These flakes reveal the different floods of the river and function as a kind of stratigraphy, identifiable by the chromatic differences between the strata. These colour variations reflect slight differences in the materials carried, caused by natural events, such as rainfall upstream, or by human causes, such as the dumping of waste or the extraction of sediments that are then displaced by the flow of water.