A LOOK AT HISTORY AND THE UNIVERSE
33 students, 1st- to 6th-grade students, Turtziozko Eskola, Trucios-Turtzioz
Teachers: Elena Edesa, Gaizka Errasti, Iñaki Tera, Roberto Canales, Aida Falces, Unai Toral
Artist: Ibon Garagarza
Main curricular subjects: Science, Social Studies
Language: Basque
The project carried out at the small one-room school Turtziozko Eskola, in the town of Trucios in Vizcaya, connected art to two different areas of study: History and The Universe. It was a big group, comprising students of all grades, with disparate skills, levels of knowledge, and interests. They took to the streets and painted all the spaces they could find in town: the pelota court, the communal dining facility, the squares, the riverside constructions… Trucios became a huge artist studio!
In addition, the students looked at the beautiful images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope and then produced their own representations of the Universe. Using expressionist techniques and gesture-based procedures in which chance played a role, they painted nebulae, planets, stars, and meteorites with a variety of paints and tools (brushes, sponges, spray paints, etc.). Following the Hubble example, they made their own video, adding motion to their paintings and introducing a soundtrack for their version of space.
Then, the students moved on to study megalithic art in prehistoric Europe: Stonehenge, Carnac, even Trucios, with its tumuli and stone circles. Inspired by these stone monuments standing in relevant places and marking significant events (e.g., death), they engaged in action art, making huge “stones” with crumpled newspapers and magazines coated in plaster and latex, and placing them in circular or other arrangements to show where the town’s landmarks – e.g., the Baroque church – or important people – seniors, relatives, friends – were.
Finally, using different types of waste from the school’s annual cleanup of the two rivers flowing across town, they made a large-format collage.