Collages for housing is the title of the exhibition currently showcasing a collection of works at the Sala O Abrigo of the Faculty of Fine Arts. This exhibition brings together the perspectives of 23 students on the pressing issue of housing and the rising cost of rents. Organised by the collective Recanto, which is responsible for coordinating this exhibition space this academic year, the collective display comprises works initially conceived as part of an academic exercise for the course Art and Social Space, part of the Fine Arts degree.
Coordinated by Professor David Pavo, this optional fourth-year course requires students to create a piece that reflects an ideological engagement through collage. Pavo noted that the project was originally intended to address the topic from a general perspective. However, in light of the ongoing social situation, particularly the housing crisis highlighted by the encampment at Puerta del Sol in Madrid and a similar protest outside the faculty, he encouraged students to focus their work on this pressing reality.
Students from this course and members of the Recanto collective, including Noa González, Xulia García, and Carla Fuentes, have shaped these works into a collective exhibition that will be open until Monday, 9 November. Fuentes emphasised the role of collage in their work, stating, “In collage, we express our obligation to act in a forceful way. We break, tear, and cut to unite, paste, and fuse elements where our perspective can reside.” She further explained that “the fragmented visions of each of us come together to give life to this exhibition and to denounce that inherently violent mass that seeks to make us feel fragile and cold.”
