Mutare Territori 2024 is launched

Last Thursday, October 10, the opening day of Mutare Territory 2024. The Carulla Foundation building hosted the six winning initiatives in a presentation event, where each of the selected entities could share their experiences. This is the first contact between the projects, the beginning of a collective process of identification of challenges, creation and social transformation. The protagonist towns of this edition are Canet de Mar, Mataró, Músser, Sant Pere de Riudebitlles, Tarragona and Ulldemolins. All of them will host the next Mutare Conference.

Mutare Territori understands culture and the arts as a social transformation tools. Through a collective learning process, and under the supervision of the Carulla Foundation, each project aspires toachievement of a social challenge raised at the beginning of the process. The objectives of each initiative respond to the needs of its municipality; localities that often do not have the cultural equipment and resources of the big cities. These are the six winning projects of this year’s edition and the challenges they propose to solve:

Association of creators Creartblau (Canet de Mar)

Creartblau is an interdisciplinary collective of artists based in Canet de Mar. The initiative works on the expressive and cohesive capacity of the arts through projects that have diversity as a central axis.

Creartblau is facing a problem that affects the whole of society: the increasingly pronounced recession of tolerance, respect and equality. The initiative aims to promote and develop projects that have these values ​​as a banner. The goal is create a methodology that allows us to build a more supportive society.

Mataró Contemporary Art (Mataró)

The MAC is one divulgative organization of contemporary arts. The center offers exhibitions and activities for all audiences, in addition to educational projects dedicated to various age groups. The MAC is also an artistic laboratory with its own resident artists.

The various initiatives of the center usually have two target audiences: on the one hand, the educational sector; on the other, those people who already enjoy contemporary art. However, a large part of the general public remains uninterested in these forms of culture. With Mutare Territory, the MAC wants to develop discourses so that the general public can feel challenged by contemporary art.

Environments (Músser)

Entorns is a space for residence and artistic creation located in the Catalan Pyrenees. The project was born four years ago, with the aim ofbringing contemporary arts closer to mountain municipalities. The initiative creates synergies between the resident artists and the knowledge of the inhabitants of rural areas.

With Mutare Territori 2024, Entorns starts a project focused on the Portella Blanca School in Lles de Cerdanya. It is a center that, due to its territorial isolation, finds it difficult to pass on culture to the students. Entorns wants to design a methodology that, through the dialogue between artists and educational centers, allows bringing quality culture to schools in rural areas. The project aspires to extend to other localities in a situation similar to that of Lles de Cerdanya.

Mitjó Collective (Sant Pere de Riudebitlles)

Col·lectiu Mitjó is a non-profit association that works for to energize and bring culture to Sant Pere de Riudebitlles. The organization was born in 2012 to organize the 1st Riudebitlles Theater Show, a festival that, since then, has been held every year. While its main activity is puppets, the Mitjó Collective works with all kinds of languages ​​and artistic practices.

Sant Pere de Riudebitlles is a small town, with about 2,500 inhabitants. Despite this, the municipality has a great wealth and cultural diversity that is often not represented. Through the Mutare methodology, the Mitjó Collective aims to weave links between various cultural and educational entities from Riudebitlles. The objective: promote the participation of the community in the culture of the territory.

Mulassa Association and the Giant Frida Gang of Tarragona (Tarragona)

This project is born from the collaboration between two cultural initiatives. On the one hand, the Mulassa Association, an organization that works for promotion of popular culture. On the other hand, the Giantess Frida, one giant gang adapted to people with functional diversity and disabilities.

Through the Mutare methodology, the Mulassa Association and the Colla de la Giganta Frida want to develop stories and projects that bring popular culture to as many people as possible, as well as make the fact of disability visible and natural as a social reality.

APA and Ulldemolins City Council (Ulldemolins)

Ulldemolins is a town of nearly 450 inhabitants located in the Priorat region. The locality maintains an active social, economic and cultural life. However, the town faces a problem: the municipal library has been closed for more than ten years.

The City Council and the APA of Ulldemolins want to use the Mutare methodology to recover and transform the library. We want to carry out a participatory process where the whole town decides what this new space will look like and what services it will offer. The intention is create, through collective action, the cultural and community epicenter of the municipality.

Mutare Territory is one methodology that works on the transformative power of culture collectively. Once the initial day is celebrated, the winners enter one preparation phase where the challenges and actions will be specified. Afterwards, the Mutare Territory Days, in which each locality will host the rest of the winners in order to devise solutions to the challenge collectively. The Carulla Foundation will monitor the projects as they develop.