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THROUGH THE CRACKSLoading...
11TH GRADE CAMPESTRE'S FINAL SHOWCASE2020
[Cover picture by:
Alejandro Sanchez Gallardo
of the series ONE FINE DAY]
Alejandro Sanchez Gallardo
of the series ONE FINE DAY]
FINE ARTS PROGRAM
A BRIEF HISTORY
Alejandro Sánchez Gallardo
A BRIEF HISTORY
Alejandro Sánchez Gallardo
In August 2014 Fine Arts was officially presented to the entire high school community as a sophisticated program that, for the first time was integrating three strong and attractive disciplines for 9th, 10th and 11th graders: Music Production, Moving Image and Visual Arts – all innovative courses within Campestre’s curriculum, which implied a new perspective, a contemporary stand towards Art Education. Until June in that same year, Music and Art were mandatory and somehow conservative and rigid within their structure. Students where never asked if they wanted to take those classes and there was no clear link or association between them. They were just part of their syllabus, a controlled and linear one. However, everything changed drastically.
Two months later high school students were encouraged to project their learning process with a different scenario, focusing on experimentation practices, creative thinking and problem-solving strategies within artistic contexts. A training cycle was offered then in 9th grade, where every single boy had the chance to experiment with music production software, recording techniques and musical instrument appropriation. Film theory, cinematography foundations, filming and editing techniques were also part of this scheme. And finally, new ways of understanding artistic practices with a contemporary approach within sculpture, photography, painting, drawing and installation. A training cycle aimed for preparing students for a coherent research process – a emphasis structure – that later had to take place during the last two years in their academic school life. This meant 10th graders were able to choose one area among those three, in order to begin a focused research process using a specialized language, going beyond what Art Education was asking around the time. For the first time in Campestre’s history, students had the chance to choose their creative path by enrolling in classes taught by experts in their own fields. This program started recruiting talented professionals who are responsible for today’s success and accomplishments.
Two months later high school students were encouraged to project their learning process with a different scenario, focusing on experimentation practices, creative thinking and problem-solving strategies within artistic contexts. A training cycle was offered then in 9th grade, where every single boy had the chance to experiment with music production software, recording techniques and musical instrument appropriation. Film theory, cinematography foundations, filming and editing techniques were also part of this scheme. And finally, new ways of understanding artistic practices with a contemporary approach within sculpture, photography, painting, drawing and installation. A training cycle aimed for preparing students for a coherent research process – a emphasis structure – that later had to take place during the last two years in their academic school life. This meant 10th graders were able to choose one area among those three, in order to begin a focused research process using a specialized language, going beyond what Art Education was asking around the time. For the first time in Campestre’s history, students had the chance to choose their creative path by enrolling in classes taught by experts in their own fields. This program started recruiting talented professionals who are responsible for today’s success and accomplishments.
[ Prologue pictures by:
Alejandro Sanchez Gallardo
of the series ONE FINE DAY]
Alejandro Sanchez Gallardo
of the series ONE FINE DAY]
A year later, in 2015, the Program had to grow and was extended down to 8th grade. The foundations and experimentation cycle turned into a robust and advanced cycle, that allowed students to explore different languages in a 2-year process (8th and 9th grade) before choosing a final emphasis. This gave the entire program a different perspective and forced to delimit common goals despite the differences among disciplines and project formal circulation strategies in order to integrate formal productions within the three areas. Until last year, those circulation strategies took an exhibition form in order to transcend the class context due to the relevant findings specially within the Visual Arts emphasis.
Then in June 2017, the first group graduated after completing the entire process within the 3-year program. One year later in June 2018, we graduated the first class to complete what by then was a 4-year program. Today this program is about to end its sixth year. But this time with a mature and talented group of artists, whose creative process is clearly not distant from what professional artists have to face in their training years. This group of students, Class of 2020, are gathered here in this catalogue type, due to their complex way of looking at the world, their pertinent inquiries regarding identity, memory, fiction, political and social issues, visual endeavor, etc.; and of course, due to the way they are translating their thoughts in compelling and pertinent visual devices. We celebrate our sixth year with a meticulously curated group of artworks made by their tutor and mentor Alejandra Díaz.
Then in June 2017, the first group graduated after completing the entire process within the 3-year program. One year later in June 2018, we graduated the first class to complete what by then was a 4-year program. Today this program is about to end its sixth year. But this time with a mature and talented group of artists, whose creative process is clearly not distant from what professional artists have to face in their training years. This group of students, Class of 2020, are gathered here in this catalogue type, due to their complex way of looking at the world, their pertinent inquiries regarding identity, memory, fiction, political and social issues, visual endeavor, etc.; and of course, due to the way they are translating their thoughts in compelling and pertinent visual devices. We celebrate our sixth year with a meticulously curated group of artworks made by their tutor and mentor Alejandra Díaz.
Unfortunately, we cannot meet inside the school’s gallery space. The pandemic forced us to move to different platforms and alternative exhibition strategies. But it never stopped this group of young artists and their mentor from building intelligible discourses and powerful messages. On the contrary, this will be the first class to be exhibited in a digital environment, which makes it even more complex and surprising.
Do not hesitate to go through this catalogue. Every page is the evidence of an intriguing and potent learning journey.
Alejandro Sánchez Gallardo
Head of Arts Deparment
Do not hesitate to go through this catalogue. Every page is the evidence of an intriguing and potent learning journey.
Alejandro Sánchez Gallardo
Head of Arts Deparment
[ Prologue pictures by:
Alejandro Sanchez Gallardo
of the series ONE FINE DAY]
Alejandro Sanchez Gallardo
of the series ONE FINE DAY]
A PEEK THROUGH THE CRACKS
Alejandra Díaz Rodríguez
Alejandra Díaz Rodríguez
It’s all about the process not the final result; a sentence so used in pedagogical processes, which I personally trust and believe on, especially when referring to artistic education and creative processes in general. We want to play the game, we want to live the moment, we want to explore and experiment and create regardless of the results we may or may not obtain. We like to believe we are here to simply to walk the path, and ideally we will enjoy it, and only as a consequent result we will make magnificent creations that will make us proud of ourselves; nevertheless, to be honest, in reality we are embedded in a world which is eager for results, we measure each other with competences, skills and abilities, and we are so into this world and this reality that we are eager too for those results, impatient to create and make those processes, thoughts, reflections come to life.
Art itself, provides us nowadays with millions of possibilities and medias for creation, and we try and try to find our own language in this ocean of possibilities, we get frustrated with those, and ourselves, on the way, break down, leave behind, and even bravely put the pieces together and start again if needed. This has been a 2 year journey which was embraced by 25 individuals and their unique worlds (24 students and myself as a tutor more than as a teacher) and this catalogue and virtual gallery mark the end of our journey together, in which all of the above: the eagerness for creation, the confusion, the abandonment, the frustration, the break downs and the bravery was present and is now finished by 23. Our path has not been even or easy, the challenges have marked the pace, and the expectations regarding the results have not changed even when the conditions have, time has not been our ally, and even when we thought we could make it happen, we were forced to be separated physically and therefore to reinvent ourselves once more. But, here we are, we could figure it out, we did not present an empty space of what could have been but did not happen, we did not gave up and find a solution together.
Art itself, provides us nowadays with millions of possibilities and medias for creation, and we try and try to find our own language in this ocean of possibilities, we get frustrated with those, and ourselves, on the way, break down, leave behind, and even bravely put the pieces together and start again if needed. This has been a 2 year journey which was embraced by 25 individuals and their unique worlds (24 students and myself as a tutor more than as a teacher) and this catalogue and virtual gallery mark the end of our journey together, in which all of the above: the eagerness for creation, the confusion, the abandonment, the frustration, the break downs and the bravery was present and is now finished by 23. Our path has not been even or easy, the challenges have marked the pace, and the expectations regarding the results have not changed even when the conditions have, time has not been our ally, and even when we thought we could make it happen, we were forced to be separated physically and therefore to reinvent ourselves once more. But, here we are, we could figure it out, we did not present an empty space of what could have been but did not happen, we did not gave up and find a solution together.