I arrived in Spain on Sunday among a group of 14 artists and architects about to embark on a 10 week adventure. We flew into Seville airport and seven of the participants were whisked into the city to their apartments and the other seven (including me) were taken by minibus to Cordoba, an hour or so drive away.
We’re here as part of the Orange and Green II project – Skills for Sustainable Futures managed by Beam in Wakefield, and partner organisations here in Spain. It’s all funded by the Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility Programme.
For us, it all started with an application back in October last year, followed by interviews in Wakefield in November and a two day induction in January. Spain seemed so far away!
Since then I’ve been trying my best to learn Spanish and researching Cordoba and sustainabily in order to work on my personal project.
In the mornings we do work placements, and work on our personal projects in the afternoons and weekends. We are also expected to experience the culture. It’s a hardship!
During our first week we’ve been shown around the city, introduced to our host work placement organisations, had a couple of Spanish lessons, and been taken on cultural trips. We even have all our meals provided and we use this as a chance to meet up with the whole group and more exchange participants from other countries.
Apart from getting to know Cordoba, we’ve been getting to know each other. The seven of us are staying in a couple of apartments close to Academia Cordoba who are organising our meals, trips, and activities. I feel incredibly lucky to be a part of a really lovely group of people. We’ve had an awful lot of laughter already and have a surprising bond after only 6 days!
We all seem to be Instagram addicts and are enjoying our #cordobananza hashtag. It’s a fun way to capture our experience of the place.
Whilst not expected to collaborate, we’ve already generated a couple of pages of collaboration ideas and below is a video of our first playful little intervention whist visiting the Alcazar. I’m sure there are many more to come!
My work placement is at the Cordoba School of Art “Dionisio Ortiz” in the Ceramics department. I have a lovely mentor who is helping me to realise my project and teaching me loads about ceramics.
I have been asked to create and album of photographs for the School, of the workshops, final pieces, and documentation of trips we take around the region, visiting ceramics workshops.
The sun is shining, the cervesas are flowing and it’s time to get out and do some more exploring!
#cordobonanza numero uno
