LOS BÁRBAROS. FROM A TO Z

“From A to Z” is the result of the barbarians’ encounter with a space - with its programming - and “with the users and workers who form an invisible and heterogeneous community.”

“Paul Klee wrote that “art does not reproduce the visible, rather, it makes it visible. The first time we visited AZ we were amazed by the space and the activities in all three buildings. In July we spent a week in Bilbao getting to know the people who work at AZ. We talked to the director, coordinators, customer service staff, maintenance, the Mediateka and gym staff. We asked all of them where in AZ they would put their own sofas and none of them were surprised by the question. They were willing to bring their privacy to the Atrium, the rooftop or the office windows and sit comfortably as they watched and listened.

There is a lot going on at AZ, some of it scheduled, some spontaneous. We returned in September and were lucky enough to meet Loli and Asier, two ONCE users who told us what you will discover when you read the hidden side of this piece. What we’ve tried to do, as Paul Klee would say, is to make visible that which can already be seen. Celebrate it”.

Los Bárbaros is a project by Javier Hernando and Miguel Rojo in which concepts around contemporary identity, power and ways of relating to each other are addressed, working between reality and fiction. They have created a corpus of works where the same question is approached from the scene, the installation, or the literature. They play with the imagination. Their proposals go from the everyday and the simple to the strangeness of the unexpected with honesty and humor. They try to create spaces for meeting and reflection from which the contemporary world can be thought.

Idea and creation: Los Bárbaros (Javier Hernando & Miguel Rojo)