LAB Collserola: Tornen les esquelles

Organized by EINA Obra in collaboration with INLAND Campo Adentro, the Sierra de Collserola Natural Park Consortium (CPNSC) and CREAF, Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications, Collserola LAB is an experimental and interdisciplinary program focused on the Sierra de Collserola Natural Park, that seeks to show that the visual arts and design are tools capable of promoting environmental awareness and ecosocial transformation towards sustainability and resilience. The first call for this initiative has awarded the project Tornen les esquelles (The Sheep Bells Return) by Martina Manyà and Ana Vivero.

One of the main challenges of the Sierra de Collserola Natural Park is the prevention of fires in a territory made up of densely populated municipalities with a high influx of visitors. Being shepherding an efficient and sustainable tool to manage forests in an agroecological way and that contributes to the viability of the experiences of the territory, The Sheep Bells Return seeks to save and revitalize the vestiges of pastoral culture in Collserola.

Its structuring axis is the recovery of the wool from the herds that graze in the Natural Park. Every year tons of wool are buried or burned because there is no coordination for its processing. The project is an instance of research on how this material can model alternative futures in the Park with its environmental, artistic, material and ethical implications. Thus, it places the role of rural production and consumption models in the conservation of the Park at the center of the debate, and claims the need to develop new forms of territorial cooperation that capture and value rural, environmental and cultural facilities. It provides actions, a cultural and environmental vision and connection between shepherding and public policies.

The activities and actions were open to teachers and students from EINA and neighbourhood schools, designers, artists, shepherds and small farmers, artisans, curators and art critics, among other representatives of rural and urban areas.

• It kicked off on September 27th with the washing of the wool fleece at the courtyard of EINA Bosc.
• It continued October 7th with a Wool Day a technical conference that served as a starting point and provided a theoretical and contextual framework of the shepherding situation at the Natural Park. The format was a round table, with shepherds, artisans, and other invited speakers and was also streamed. You can see it at EINA's YouTube channel.
• It continued from October 10th to 21st with a Textile Lab where the wool from the Collserola herds were explored: untangling, carding, use of vegetable dyes, spinning, weaving, and felting. A manual work accompanied by conversations and research around wool from the artistic and design practices. The goal was to learn through experience, perform collectively, experiment and work manually.
• It closed with the making of a large tapestry that, from November 2nd to 8th, we was weaved between students, teachers, pastors, experts and interested citizens.

A part of this project, on Thursday 15 December, from 2 pm to 7 pm, a session-workshop of Sustainable ephemeral architecture: a shed for Collserola will be organized at EINA Bosc. On the occasion of the future construction of a sheep shed in Collserola, this activity is proposed to collectively think, prototype and design an ephemeral bio-construction that, in addition to serving as a shelter, can function as a didactic centre for approaching the rural world.

The activity will be open to students from EINA and other schools, designers, architects, artists and interested members of the public.

→ Registration is free and can be done through this link.