Art in my school

ART IN MY COLE

Last Friday, April 25, Marquesa Gallery experienced something unusual. The white walls were filled with color, with ideas, at first. Explosión, a collective exhibition created by the students of the Colegio de Piedralaves within the project Arte en mi cole, devised by the artist Rubén Martín de Lucas.

Explosion? Yes, with that invented name that mixes “explosion” and “exposure”, the children wanted to baptize their sample. Rarely has a title captured so well the spirit of what happened in the gallery: an explosion of creativity, gameplay and pure energy.

For several weeks, Rubén worked hand in hand with the students of the school, proposing them to think, create and share from freedom. Do not repeat molds or follow instructions. Each work is born from its own world: drawings, constructions, pieces that speak of the everyday or the fantastic, of what disturbs or amuses them. Always with that clean look that you only have in childhood.

Thanks to the essential support of Fernando Borlan, who has been very close to the project since the beginning, contemporary art sneaked into the classrooms and found its place in the daily lives of students. Not as something strange or distant, but as a tool to express oneself, to understand oneself, to imagine.

The evening of the inauguration was simply magical. Marquesa Gallery was filled with families, neighbors, peers and onlookers who came to see — and celebrate — what the children had done. To see them proudly explain their works, to point out their pieces hanging on the wall, to share their processes, was one of those scenes that is not forgotten. The gallery became a meeting place between generations and between worlds: that of professional art and that of child discovery.

https://youtube.com/shorts/Tno0ZHFKwZc?feature=share

But Explosion is also a purposeful project. All proceeds from the sale of the works will go towards further developing artistic workshops at the school and, if the objective is achieved, taking students to visit the Inelcom collection in Madrid. A beautiful way to close the circle: create in order to keep learning.

From Marquesa Gallery we firmly believe that this type of initiatives are essential. Art must not remain enclosed in elitist circuits or incomprehensible discourses. Art can – and must – be part of education, growth, the common. Seeing these children become artists, without asking for permission and without fear of being wrong, reminds us why we continue betting on opening our doors to projects like this.

Art in my school is a seed. Proof that another way of approaching art is possible. That you can create without pressure, share without competing, and enjoy without needing to understand everything. That a gallery can also be playground, open classroom and common home.

Thank you to Rubén Martín de Lucas for your generosity and vision. Thanks to Fernando Borlan for being close, for pushing, for making possible what sometimes seems difficult. And thank you, above all, to every boy and girl who participated in this Explosion. Because art, when viewed from its height, makes sense again.