The etymology of recordar, Spanish for “to remember”, is “to go back to one’s heart”, as memory was once thought to reside there and, even today, processes of memory making are immersed within affective landscapes.
Valle de los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen), the Francoist monument built between 1940 and 1959 close to Madrid, will soon be emptied of Franco’s remains.
As it risks becoming a cenotaph – an empty burial monument – and it is at the center of heated public discourses surrounding its future, Valle de los Caídos is paradigmatic of the difficult processes of re-signifying controversial monuments.
Between 25 and 27 October 2018, as part of the “Deep Space” independent artistic project and long-term investigative program, Hybrid Space Lab will curate the international, interdisciplinary workshop “Deep Space: Re-signifying Valle de los Caídos” at MediaLab Prado, Madrid.
The reliance on artistic practices and applied disciplines transgressing the arts field, such as architecture and media studies, to approach controversial heritage interrogates how these disciplines and their interaction may contribute to the re-construction of memory, exploring the potential of integrating diverse methods to process historical wounds.
By favoring artistic engagement with memory making, “Deep Space: Re-signifying Valle de los Caídos” aims at establishing a place for dialogue and proposals on possible future visual and sensual heritage landscapes in the Valley’s contentious spatial and affective context.
