Rooms 2020: Loqui Walls. The walls speak. Podcast to give voice to the territory

The research stay Loqui Walls. The walls speak. Podcast to give voice to the territory has proposed the creation of a communication project of the Mudejar territory through a series of thematic podcasts that promote, encourage and complement the visit to the territory.

The starting hypothesis was that the combination of the unstoppable and undeniable use of mobile technologies with the current health situation meant that some localities needed to be reoriented towards a more autonomous and spaced tourism, both in terms of physical distance and time, so a priori this methodology seemed to be the right one to be able to provide service to travellers at any time of the day and, above all, any day of the week.

These podcasts are in no way intended to replace the experience of a guided tour in situ by a specialist, but given that these are generally limited to the main monuments, they are intended to complement and enrich both the prior preparation and the subsequent experience, proposing a series of routes through the territory and additional information about the localities and the possible activities to be carried out in them or in other nearby places.

To this end, a first phase of research was carried out in collaboration with the internship students of the Desafío Programme, in which four possible thematic axes were identified for structuring the first podcasts, which also served as a pilot for the project.

  1. The birth of Mudejar
  2. The keys to the Mudejar style
  3. Mixed race and border
  4. World Heritage

The idea has been to develop the podcast channel under these three objectives:

  • As an enhancer of “derived” visits. That is to say, that through this medium, localities that receive fewer visitors can acquire greater visibility by offering themselves as a complement to visits to other towns that today have a more developed tourist infrastructure.
  • As a complement to other visits already underway within the same locality and whose effectiveness has been proven. To be able to work along the lines of complementarity within the same locality and increase the number of places visited and the time spent in the localities.
  • Proposing routes between nearby locations, thus creating a network between places with similar communication needs that can benefit synergistically.

In the testing and corrections phase during its implementation, an active collaboration of the inhabitants of the territory was foreseen, but the current health situation has led to transfer part of this work to online formats, with some activities pending that will be carried out as soon as the situation allows.

The fundamental objective has been that this research work and its subsequent implementation, available both through the Territorio Mudéjar website and through different commercial channels, should serve not only to activate this specific initiative, but also to create guidelines that, based on the previous research, the pilot implementation and its start-up, testing, corrections, etc. (which are a fundamental phase of this stay), constitute a reference both in terms of content and at a technical level that can be used in the rest of the towns and villages in the territory. The objective is to promote this communication system which, at the moment, seems to be a possible way of developing sustainable tourism with possibilities for the future.

In this sense, a technical guide has been produced that explains how to convert audio files, how to add metadata to podcasts to facilitate their location in different repositories, how to analyse the commercial platforms available on the market, and how to create guidelines for text style, length and content architecture, to allow for proper voiceover, dissemination and understanding of the content.

RESEARCH LINE: Corresponds to the lines of cultural heritage management and communication and dissemination.

THE AUTHORS:

  • Gianluca Vita, Politecnico di Milano.
  • Irene Ruiz, Politecnico di Torino and University of Zaragoza.
  • Marco Marcellini, expert in new technologies.

More information in:
www.territoriomudejar.es/podcast/

Estancias 2020: Mudejar woodwork. Guide to historic woodwork in the towns of Territorio Mudéjar.

The Mudéjar Wood project presents an online video-publication as an exhaustive guide to all the manifestations of historic carpentry located in the towns of Mudéjar Territory.

The research stay began with a visit to the twelve localities with Mudejar carpentry works: Torralba de Ribota, Tobed, Cervera de la Cañada, Maluenda, Mesones de Isuela, La Almunia, Calatayud, Daroca, Illueca, Aniñón, Alagón and Borja. In this first phase of fieldwork, each of the pieces was examined in depth by Ángel María Martín (Avila, 1963), a professional with more than 20 years of experience in the world of Spanish historical carpentry in the fields of restoration, new works and training.

In a second phase, explanatory videos were made on the technical and stylistic characteristics of the works and photographs were taken to illustrate the online publication. Subsequently, the edition was completed with documentation and research work in the bibliography and archives on the historical trajectory of each work, from its construction to the present day, including the different restoration and conservation processes. Finally, a glossary of key terms in architecture and historical carpentry has been compiled to make it easier to follow the explanations.

The aim of the stay and the resulting publication has been to communicate and highlight the artistic manifestations in wood, authentic hidden gems of Aragonese Mudejar art. Data on Mudejar heritage has been updated and knowledge of the traditional techniques of Mudejar carpentry has been promoted from a structural, constructive and stylistic point of view, in each of the typologies analysed: alfarjes, a ceiling with a framework of limes, two doors and a carrillón.

The project closes with three reflections that seem to us to be unquestionable:

  • Firstly, that despite the progress made and the extraordinary achievements of the last few decades, there is still a need to continue with the task of disseminating and enhancing the value of Aragon’s Mudejar heritage, contributing to its protection and conservation.
  • It is noted that in rural areas, far from large population centres, it is increasingly difficult to understand and value cultural heritage.
  • That wood, along with brick, ceramics and plaster, was also a material used in Aragonese Mudejar art is demonstrated by the valuable examples of its application in a good number of towns in the Mudejar Territory.

LINE OF RESEARCH: (4) Communication and dissemination of Mudejar heritage

AUTHORS: The project team consisted of Myriam Monterde and José Manuel Herraiz, as coordinators; Ángel María Martín, specialist in historical carpentry; Sara Gimeno as documentalist and Emilio Gazo as assistant video and photography technician.

More info: www.estancias2020maderamudejar.territoriomudejar.es/

Third MOMAr meeting: exchange of international good practices

    The pedagogical nature and the use of new technologies in the field of heritage management were the focus of the third interregional meeting of the European project MOMAr (IEEE3 From theory to practice.Experimental Models of Management Tested) in which we have participated this week as an attending “stakeholder”.

    This event has allowed us to learn and be inspired by the initiatives that are being carried out in the field of Management of Singular Rural Heritage in all the countries participating in the project. This meeting has also allowed the use of cultural and natural spaces for the direct benefit and enjoyment of the population.

    Thus, the Daroca Town Hall announced the International Early Music Festival, which, with almost half a century of history, has become a world reference. Both training courses and concerts are attended every year by hundreds of professionals and lovers of early music from all over the world. It is a meeting that brings together the immense local architectural and historical heritage with international art and culture. The festival’s director, Javier Artigas, took the opportunity to confirm that this year’s edition will take place from 3 to 10 August. The broadcast of this experience was made from the church of San Miguel.

    Territorio Mudéjar Routes: Mestizo Land and borderland

      Territorio Mudéjar continues with its routes.In January we offered a first panoramic approach in the magazine La magia de viajar por Aragón (The magic of travelling in Aragon); in this new issue, the “Mestizo Land and borderland” route takes us to visit the places where the Christian, Jewish and Muslim cultures developed in an extraordinary and lasting way.

      We will be able to understand how this period of cultural fusion is still clearly reflected today in urbanism, the country houses and monuments of these villages that played an important role in the Aragonese territory during the 12th and 13th centuries.

      We will discover it in the Jewish, Moorish and Christian quarters of large urban centres such as Calatayud, Daroca and Borja, as well as in more rural towns such as Villafeliche, Mesones de Isuela, Torrellas, Magallón and Tauste.

      We invite you to take a leisurely stroll and a fresh look to recognise the vestiges of this rich coexistence of cultures, to understand their evolution, ways of life, trades and traditions, and to understand their historical importance and their reflection in the present day.

      Find out more about the route.

      Second MOMAr meeting: Territorio Mudéjar as a hub for rural innovation

      Territorio Mudéjar has participated this Thursday in the second meeting of the European project MOMAr, a pioneering meeting with entities of the province linked to cultural heritage.

      The event, with the aim of being a meeting point and a space to create new synergies within the sector, was held in an on-line format open to the public, with the participation of more than 50 professionals linked to heritage management and a streaming audience of more than 200 interested people.

      In the session, we explained how we work to be a hub of rural innovation and follow strategies of:

      • Research: with stays and professional internships in rural areas.
      • Communication, dissemination and knowledge: with the inhabitants as protagonists, working to attract national and international entities to the territory, taking advantage of the World Heritage brand; and working carefully with the media.
      • Investment and future projects: Working with specialised teams in calls for funding and building virtual workspaces to strengthen collaboration strategies.

      In addition, we have explained our role based on:

      • Use the heritage space from a disruptive point of view and directly linked to the local development of the communities.
      • The strengthening of historical-artistic heritage management thinking as a strategy, which affects multiple actions, and cultural management as a tool.
      • Attraction of professionals to the rural environment on a permanent basis, facilitating its implementation.
      • The evidence that the only way to have more significant results is through the strengthening of networking and the acquisition of roles within the network.
      • The need to exchange good practices without losing sight of the fact that it is not enough to replicate but to think about how it works in your territory and the assets on which your management is based.

      And we talked about our commitment to professionalization understood as quality, projects and results.

      Territorio Mudéjar Routes: The beauty of a genuine art form

        In 2021, Mudejar architecture celebrates a double anniversary in its declaration as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO: 35 years since the recognition of Mudejar architecture of Teruel in 1986, and 20 years since the extension of the international brand to the entire Aragonese territory, with the incorporation of six buildings from the province of Zaragoza in 2001. This extension was key in order to understand the true dimension and significance of Mudejar art in Aragon.

        With this in mind, we have started a series of printed trips, with the help of Prames and the magazine La Magia de Viajar por Aragón (The Magic of travelling in Aragón), in which every two months we will travel around the Mudejar heritage in the province of Zaragoza.

        The trips will lead us to the month of December, when we will commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the declaration as World Heritage of some of its most outstanding examples.

        The first of the articles, available in the January issue of the magazine La Magia de Viajar (The Magic of Travelling), allows us to explain the beauty of a genuine art form. That is to say, why Mudejar art, exclusive to the Iberian Peninsula and an enclave between Islamic and Christian art derived from the conditions of coexistence in medieval Spain, is the most genuine artistic manifestation of Spain and has its greatest exponent in Aragon, a land of frontiers and a melting pot of cultures.

        Read the article.

        2021 Stays: Scenic Mudejar

        Scenic Mudejar.
        Exploring performing arts culture in the medieval period: music, dance, and minstrelsy

        This study has focused on developing strategies in the region that promote Mudejar identity and strengthen professional networks through research, creation, and artistic dissemination in the fields of musical and performance art. It has also designed initiatives to facilitate the programming of future performances in the region. The project is based on a concept of heritage that encompasses traditions, customs, and other artistic expressions that are part of the collective memory.

        The project is based on the idea that the performing arts—arts of time and space, of memory and celebration—have the potential to connect the past with the present, develop the contemporary imagination of a territory, and, at the same time, nourish myths, figures, and motifs of local tradition.

        Its contribution to local, economic and sustainable development has been studied in the following areas:

        • Economic benefits derived from greater territorial attractiveness (the entire cultural sector) and innovative drive (creative industries);
        • Strengthening social cohesion through expressive forms in keeping with the cultural diversity of the population;
        • Education and awareness-raising of the population on social and environmental issues (e.g., sustainability and nature preservation) through the performing arts in all their creative forms;
        • Control and reduction of your own environmental footprint.

        The study has focused on fieldwork and the study of a vast amount of archival material and bibliography on scenic Mudejar to outline four operational objectives:

        1. To examine, in the local history of three towns in the Mudejar Territory, the events that could give rise to a commemorative project of a scenic nature;
        2. To highlight, within the tangible local heritage of these three towns, the material elements that can serve as a stage for a musical, theatrical, choreographic or hybrid program with reference to Andalusian and Mudejar culture;
        3. To examine, within the intangible local heritage of these three peoples, the material elements that can be related to the surviving Andalusian culture, with a view to proposing their recovery or revitalization;
        4. To identify, within the local political, educational, and cultural fabric, the dynamics and difficulties that must be taken into account when proposing performing arts projects related to the “Mudejar identity” of these three communities.

        From the analysis carried out, a series of conclusions have been drawn about the aspects of Andalusian art that are manifested in the Mudejar scene, taking as a reference the data obtained from Islamic and Andalusian sources and those obtained later within the framework of the Mudejar and Moorish minority.

        The research proposes that Mudejar performing arts be recognized as a category within the history of the performing arts, and that there will be no differences between the performing arts carried out by Mudejars and Moriscos.

        The visit concludes with a comprehensive bibliography and iconography of the performing arts associated with the Mudéjar Territory, as well as a proposal for several solutions that involve a tangential and mixed repertoire, a symbiosis between the medieval and the contemporary as a way of highlighting this lost but not irretrievable tradition and of investing in new techniques to develop new Mudéjar performing arts projects. The aim is to enhance the possibilities for managing the use of heritage spaces in the Mudéjar Territory.

        LINE OF RESEARCH: Social function

        AUTHORS: María Amor Borque and Serge Dambrine

        2021 Stays: Mudejar and Euclidean geometry or plane geometry.

        The Mudejar and Euclidean geometry or plane geometry

        This stay addresses the visual study of Aragonese Mudejar architecture in the Mudejar Territory and, by extension, in the province of Zaragoza. The project has allowed us to collect and study Mudejar architecture, studying it in depth and with geometric rigor. It has also established parallels between them and with others developed outside the scope of the project.

        In total, around 50 graphic works were created, combining technical exercises in gramophones, ribbons, lacework, and oculi with interior and exterior architectural views. The result is a graphic archive never before developed, allowing Territorio Mudéjar to possess a collection of Mudejar images for future publication.

        The Mudejar and Euclidean Geometry or Plane Geometry project is essential for compiling all the artistic wealth present in this artistic manifestation, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and unique in the world.

        The working methodology was based on the analysis of photographs, from which measurements and execution systems were extracted. Connecting points, centers, parallel lines, and layouts were deduced. An attempt was made to recover the geometric solutions used by the Mudejar masters and their sources of inspiration.

        The objectives of the project have been the following:

        • To study the use of plane geometry in Aragonese Mudejar solutions.
        • Interrelate these solutions between different architectural buildings.
        • To address the gap in the constructive and compilation study of the various ties, latticework, plasterwork, oculi, etc.
        • To promote awareness of the richness of Mudejar art.
        • To bring together a collection of artistic creations that will serve as Territorio Mudéjar’s own artistic archive.

        The rich graphic work produced during this stay studies geometric motifs from the church of Santa María de Tobed, the church of Saints Justa and Rufina and the church of Santa María de Maluenda, the church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción in Utebo, the church of San Martín de Tours in Morata de Jiloca, the church of Santa Tecla in Cervera de la Cañada, the church of San Félix in Torralba de Ribota, the collegiate church of Santa María and the churches of San Andrés and San Benito in Calatayud, the Luna palace in Daroca, and the church of Nuestra Señora del Castillo in Aniñón, and relates them to others in the province, the peninsula and the Near East.

        The results, plastic objects in themselves, will be the subject of various exhibition projects and special editions over the coming months.

        LINE OF RESEARCH: New perspectives on Mudejar art.

        AUTHOR: Chema Agustín.

        2021 Stays: The Didactic Mudejar, the guide.

        Educational Mudejar, the guide.

        2021 Internships: The internship focused on producing educational material for primary and secondary school students that helps them interpret Mudejar art through a combination of illustrations and real images, and helps them learn to appreciate this rich legacy. This educational resource will be available on the Territorio Mudéjar website, will be accessible through all types of devices, and will have an attractive, visual, and dynamic presentation. The online publication will be complemented by routes through maps and games adapted to the students’ level and linked to the work carried out by the “Circular desde la escuela rural” project. This tool can be used in the classroom and with the family. Educational guide.

        The development of the online teaching guide that summarizes the results of the research stay has been carried out in the following phases:

        Script development and documentation: “The didactic Mudejar”

        • Documentation, idea development, script writing, copywriting, creativity with historical and artistic introductions.
        • Design and production of various resources and teaching materials to adapt them to editorial production.
        • Structure and planning of illustrations as well as trips to create the map/route with photographs and illustrations.

        Selection of locations to contextualize the educational guide as a map for exploring the towns of the Mudéjar Territory.

        • Taking photographs to combine illustrations and real images to help children better visualize and understand the content. The combination of reality and illustration is a key resource for this.
        • Photographs for map/route.

        Illustrations: DAVID GUIRAO:

        • Illustrations and storyboarding.
        • Digital retouching and adaptation of illustrations to the appropriate size and format for production.

        Production and realization of the online publication:

        • Search and selection of still images. Includes photo retouching and photomontages.
        • Design and layout of an interactive PDF with a map/plan showing routes for families and educational purposes.
        • Motion graphics. Creation of moving graphics (maps, layered photographs, titles, text).

        The result can be consulted through the following button:

        SEE DIDACTIC GUIDE

        LINE OF RESEARCH: Communication and dissemination.

        AUTHORS: Myriam Monterde, Elisa Plana, José Manuel Herráiz and David Guirao.

        2021 Internships: Preventive Urban Planning

        Preventive urbanism: Guidelines and tools for the protection of
        traditional architecture in Mudejar towns from the perspective of urban planning.

        This research internship proposes an analysis and comparative study of the urban planning regulations governing architectural interventions in various locations in the Mudéjar Territory. It does so by generating an overview of the level of protection afforded to traditional architecture through planning, identifying areas for improvement, and proposing a framework document that can be used by both private developers and municipal technicians to improve the compatibility of interventions in traditional buildings. This project continues the research on vernacular architecture initiated during the previous internships.

        The work developed is based on general objectives that have been:

        1. To promote appreciation for traditional architecture within the sphere of influence of Aragonese Mudejar art, fostering the perception of construction techniques as a valuable cultural heritage that must be preserved and protected.
        2. To promote the compatible conservation, restoration, and rehabilitation of traditional architecture, offering tools tailored to the specific circumstances of the Aragonese Mudejar influence.
        3. Promote coordination between municipal administrations and private sector initiatives to develop flexible and conservative interventions.
        4. Promote the regeneration of rural areas through their heritage, proposing alternative uses beyond the tourism sector and offering tools that enable the development of interventions that are compatible with and respectful of local cultural identity.

        Based on these general objectives, a series of specific objectives have been proposed:

        1. To analyze the state of urban planning and its influence on traditional architecture in the towns that make up the Mudéjar Territory.
        2. Generate reference documentation, in the form of guidelines and conservation objectives, that can be used by local councils to promote and encourage compatible intervention and preventive conservation of local traditional architecture.
        3. Promote social involvement with preventive conservation tools and their appropriation by the community through citizen participation actions.
        4. Raise awareness about the value of traditional architecture through outreach activities that emphasize the irreplaceable nature of this architecture and the importance of its preservation.
        5. Encourage the supply and demand for traditional trades, highlighting the virtues and real costs of these techniques and contributing to the formation of a regional professional network.

        The visit concludes with conclusions and guidelines for compatible interventions in the area’s traditional architecture, which will be disseminated among the various interested communities.

        LINE OF RESEARCH: New perspectives on Mudejar art; cultural heritage management

        AUTHOR: Laura Villacampa Crespo

        CONTRIBUTORS: F. Javier Gómez Patrocinio, Ignacio Pérez Bailón.