Territorio Mudéjar awards three stays and four runners-up prizes for innovative projects that promote Mudejar heritage in rural areas.

Territorio Mudéjar has awarded three research stays and four runners-up prizes to carry out innovative projects that contribute to the development of the partner towns through the responsible and sustainable use of cultural and natural heritage resources.

This is the fourth call for applications for the stays named after Gonzalo M. Borrás Gualis as a tribute to the distinguished professor and expert in Mudejar art. Each of the stays is endowed with 6,000 euros and each runner-up with 4,000 euros.

The projects selected by a team of interdisciplinary experts range from the creation of a white book to conserve traditional architecture, the drafting of a digitalisation strategy, sound contexts in the Mudéjar through early music, a strategy to make the Mudéjar heritage visible to the Muslim public, the study of the geometric elements of Mudéjar churches, the creation of analysis maps of the partner towns and the study of light in the Mudéjar through drawing and painting.

These projects are in addition to the 16 from previous editions and the more than 36 professionals who have formed the network of researchers of the stays since they were launched in 2019 and who have provided new perspectives on the management of Mudejar heritage, have had a positive impact on the villages and have promoted an interdisciplinary work network. In addition, specifically, they have improved the knowledge of the Mudejar as World Heritage and the benefits it brings as an international brand recognised by Unesco.

The selected stays are:

1-“Prevention and conservation from urban planning: development of a tool for the protection of traditional architecture”. Javier Gómez Patrocinio (PhD in Architecture, Polytechnic University of Valencia) proposes the development of recommendations, in the form of a white paper, to serve as a framework for implementing criteria for the conservation of local traditional architecture in urban planning management.

2-“Mudejar Smart 3D. Digitalisation strategy for the Mudejar territory”. Gian Luca Vita (Politecnico di Milano) and Marco Luchini (Politecnico di Milano and Federico II University of Naples) propose the creation of a series of three-dimensional models for

test the implementation of a way of working with the heritage digitisation process that is useful when generating new projects. They plan to draft a digitisation strategy for Territorio Mudéjar that is adapted to the specific circumstances of the territory and its heritage.

3-“Contextos sonoros y arte mudéjar, una aproximación incipiente desde la interpretación históricamente informada (ss. XVI-XVIII): ecos del pasado y proyecto de futuro” (Sound contexts and Mudejar art, an incipient approach from historically informed interpretation (16th-18th centuries): echoes of the past and a project for the future). The musicians and researchers Carlos Bonal, Miguel Bonal and Carlos González (University of Granada, Royal Conservatory of The Hague and University of Castilla La Mancha) aim to generate new artistic contexts through the study of early music and the original acoustics of the Mudejar heritage space and to reflect on the possibilities for the future of this heritage as a space linked to musical practice.

The selected runners-up are:

1-“Assessment of the muslim-friendly potential of Territorio Mudéjar for the reception of knowledge tourism”. Bárbara Ruiz Bejarano, PhD in Arab and Islamic Studies (University of Alicante and Las Fuentes Foundation) studies the opportunity to make Aragon’s great Mudejar heritage visible to Muslim tourists, based on a new form of knowledge tourism, of higher quality, centred on heritage, history and its contemporary heritage through the “Halal” tradition.

2-‘Mudéjar RGB’. Víctor Solanas-Díaz, PhD in Art History (University of Zaragoza), will study in depth the geometric elements used on the exterior of the main Mudéjar churches to obtain a study of the rhythm through a series of ‘motifs’ that he will then take as a reference in the artistic interventions that he will develop linking the Mudéjar heritage and its translation to different museums and art galleries in Spain.

3-‘Mudejar landscape’. Javier Montori Montolar and Esteban Lahoz Montolar, graduates in Fine Arts (University of Barcelona) and Master PhotoEspaña, propose to digitise the terrain and morphology of the villages through a series of analysis cartographies (the starting point will be a photogrammetric survey of the village). With this, they aim to create a sustainable tool that contributes to heritage conservation and attracts the scientific and educational community.

4-“Mudejar as dermis. Light in Mudejar art”. The artist and plastic arts researcher Pilar García Verón (Complutense University of Madrid) seeks to bring the public closer to Mudejar art through the study of its aesthetic variables. Through drawing and painting, she aims to capture a specific stage in the temporal and spatial development of light in order to show how it dematerialises form.

Territorio Mudéjar celebrates its fourth anniversary as a model of success

Territorio Mudéjar celebrates this week its fourth anniversary as an association of town councils, currently 40 member municipalities and one collaborating partner, whose objective is to consolidate a unified and collaborative management network for the use of the historical and artistic resources linked to the important Mudejar heritage, understanding them as an engine for the development of the villages and as an element of identity for the maintenance of the communities that make up our territory.

As a result of these four years of work, Territorio Mudéjar has become a model of good innovative practices at international level (it is taken as a model of successful management, for example, in the regions of Groningen -Netherlands-, in the Heritage Lab project of the Libau Foundation, and in South Bohemia -Czech Republic-). It has also been selected by the Ministry of Culture to present the entity as a management model at the 16th Meeting of World Heritage managers to be held on 28 and 29 September in Mérida.

Study-trip to Cortona (Italy): Territorio Mudéjar participates once again in the COrtonaOPen3d workshop.

This week saw the end of the eleventh edition of the workshop organised by the Politecnico di Milano, the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, the Urbino Academy of Fine Arts and the Aragon School of Design COrtonaOPen3d, in which Territorio Mudéjar participated for the third consecutive year.

In this edition, the director of the entity, Victoria Trasobares, travelled to the Tuscan town to share with the participants in the workshop her strategic vision of the possibilities for development offered by Heritage in the rural environment and to explain to the students, students of architecture, design and Fine Arts, the management processes that enable the implementation of innovative projects, such as those developed in the Gonzalo M. Borrás Gualis Research Stays and Projects.

The students of the workshop have developed a total of 23 proposals centred on the possibilities offered by the Girifalco Fortress, located in the upper part of the city, as a pole of innovation and cultural development with a theme that this year revolved around the theme of music. Reflections ranging from its connection with existing structures in the town centre such as the Signorelli Theatre, the development of installations along the routes leading to the fortress or the refunctionalisation of some spaces have materialised the ideas on the future of heritage as a driving force for local development shared during these days.

On the other hand, various meetings have been held with the cultural institutions responsible for the Cortona On The Move International Photography Festival, the managers of different heritage sites such as the Girifalco Fortress itself and the heads of Culture and Tourism of the local council in order to set up joint projects that, with a strategic vision of the management of the heritage of these territories, will allow new actions to be developed over the coming year.

COrtonaOPen3d is a SmartCityDesign workshop in a Cultural Heritage context held in the town of Cortona (Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy) from 29 July to 7 August. During the workshop, participants develop individually or in groups an architectural design project or an artistic installation inserted in the context of the city of Cortona.

The workshop lasts approximately 100 hours divided between frontal lessons, lectures and project workshops and is conducted in Italian, English and Spanish. Each year around 50 to 100 international students participate.

The students of the Desafío Programme, Unita and the collaborators of Territorio Mudéjar attended the presentation from the organisation’s headquarters in Tobed.

Students of the Desafío and Unita programmes begin their training in heritage management

Territorio Mudéjar is once again taking part in the Desafío Programme, popularly known as “rural Erasmus”, and this summer we will once again be hosting students on work experience in our villages.

The students will live in Tobed, Velilla de Ebro and Castejón de Valdejasa thanks to this programme promoted by the DPZ Chair on Depopulation and Creativity, financed by the Diputación de Zaragoza and managed through Universa, the Orientation and Employment Service of the University of Zaragoza.

The initiative is in line with Territorio Mudéjar’s objective of promoting curricular or training internships and professionalising profiles linked to heritage in order to boost employment in rural areas, attract professionals and develop projects that lead to investment in our villages.

In the same way, this summer we will also train students thanks to the European university project UNITA-universitas montium. This initiative is being developed together with the universities of Turin (Italy), which acts as coordinator, Pau and Savoy Montblanc in France, West Timisoara in Romania and Beira Interior in Portugal.

All of them, during their scholarship, will be trained in the methodology of cultural heritage management projects with professionals from different disciplines. In addition, they were immersed in the different models of accessibility to the monuments in the towns of Territorio Mudéjar, among other issues.

Study visit to Territorio Mudéjar with experts from Cordoba, USA and Qatar

This Tuesday, Territorio Mudéjar held a study visit to its localities in which the director of the organisation, Victoria Trasobares, was accompanied by Bárbara Ruiz Bejarano, professor of Islamic studies at the University of Alicante and project director of the Las Fuentes Foundation with its headquarters in Córdoba.

Attiya Ahmad, Associate Professor at George Washington University (Washington DC); Hadeel alhosani, Reem jassim, members of the Qasd Foundation (Qatar) also participated in the meeting. All of them related to the Medina Network.

The study visit covered the towns of Daroca, Morata de Jiloca, Maluenda and Tobed, where Mudejar culture was explained in its broadest sense, covering monuments, civil architecture, town planning, landscape and trades and traditions.

Maluenda
Morata de Jiloca
Daroca

MOMAr Study Tour of Mehedinti County, Romania

Territorio Mudéjar participated in the latest study visit of the European MOMAr (‘Models of Management for Singular Rural Heritage’) project to Mehedinti County in Romania.

This rural area of ​​the country has served as inspiration for 24 European experts to learn about best practices in rural heritage management models.

On this trip, we visited the Iron Gates Regional Museum, located in the town of Drobeta Turnu Severin, and its exhibits on the communities of Mehedinti County.

On a cruise along the Danube, we observe the natural diversity and historical sites nestled along the river’s banks.

We visited the village of Eibenthal in the Banat Mountains, inhabited by a Czech community and which has become a meeting and celebration place.

They also explained the success story of the DiGiParks initiative, which reproduces 3D models of the region’s notable heritage sites.

The visit continued at the Romanian Hydroelectric Power Station Museum. In Balta Cave, we enjoyed a concert performed by a local music school.

We arrived at the so-called ‘Bridge of God’, the largest natural bridge in Romania, located in the village of Ponoarele.

And the last stage of the tour took place at the church of Selistea.

The Aragonese delegation was made up of the DPZ team: the coordinator of the Citizenship Area, Juan José Borque; the head of the Culture and Heritage Section, Lorena Laga; and the culture technician and member of the MOMAr coordination team, Isabel Soria. Traveling with them were the director of Mudejar Territory, Victoria Trasobares; the mayor of Gotor, José Ángel Calvo; the mayor of Quinto, Jesús Morales; the mayor of Velilla de Ebro, María Rosario Gómez; and the culture technician from the Utebo City Council, Walter Espada.

Representatives of the European partners also attended the trip from Saxony-Anhalt (Germany), South Bohemia (Czech Republic), and the province of Groningen (Netherlands), as well as the project’s technical advisory committee, made up of Irene Ruiz and Marisa Sebastián.