Art Workshops in Spain, spring and summer 2012 - our best courses one more time:

RAKU Try firing hands-on. Experience the highlights and atmosphere during the burning process. Take part in mini-lectures.  Eat well, and enjoy the magical countryside. 5 days, max 6 participants . Feb 27 -  March 2 , and/or April 9-13, 2012

CONTEMPORARY ART & concrete as an art medium. Casting, mold making, modelling and carving. Site-specific art and local identity, contemporary art, Spanish art today, concrete and fine art. Max 8 participants. 26 June - 2 July, 2012

HELIGHETENS BILDER The Sacred Image (in Swedish only) with Tom Sandqvist. Helighetens bilder är en workshop som syftar till att kombinera teori och konstnärlig praktik utifrån “heligheten” som gemensamt tema. Med utgångspunkt i sju föreläsningar / seminarier om helighetens olika både historiska och samtida uttrycksformer kombineras sedan den teoretiska reflektionen med eget konstnärligt arbete samt studiebesök i kyrkor och i Alhambra. June 14 - 23, 2012

for more info:see webpage  or contact us

LaCultura was established in 2005. We offer courses and workshops in Cultural Studies, Creative Writing, Art and Design (Contemporary Art, Ceramics, Painting, Artists' Books, Concrete, Land Art, Art Theory, and more) and courses in Spanish language.  We bring in only professional teachers from colleges and universities from all over the world. The courses comprise both theory and practical application; lectures, discussions, individual work and advising.  Our groups are small and we give much attention to individual students. We are located in the small historical village of Cútar, hidden in the coastal mountains not far from the sea. Our students usually stay in our hostel.

IN ENGLISH: Just like last year. Workshop in Raku ceramics 27 feb – 2 March or 9-13 April. Try hands-on firing and experience the atmosphere during the burning process and its highlights, participate in mini-lectures, eat well,  and experience the magical nature. The workshops takes place over 5 intensive days at laCultura.cc, our small and personal cultural center in the idyllic village Cútar in the Andalusian coastal mountains, about 35 km east of Malaga, Spain. Instructor Cilla Adlercreutz, Swedish ceramicist and artist, teaches in a variety of technics. In her own studio, and while traveling around the world, Cilla Adlercreutz has since the 1970s developed technics and materials based on ancient traditions and knowledge of minerals.Price: 540 euros / 4950 SEK includes workshop, materials, bed, breakfasts & dinners. excl. travel expenses

EN ESPAÑOL: Primavera 2012 estamos aquí otra vez con: Taller de Rakú en La Axarquía. 27 feb – 2 marzo o 9-13 april. Igual como el año pasado: prueba cocinar y experimenta la atmósfera durante la cocción y su fuego. Participa en las charlas. Disfruta la buena comida y el ambiente mágico. Las talleres tienen lugar durante 5 días intensivos en laCultura.cc, un pequeño y íntimo centro cultural ubicado en pueblo idílico de Cútar en el litoral este de Málaga. Profesora Cilla Adlercreutz, ceramista y artista sueca, enseña varias técnicas. En su taller, como en sus viajes, Cilla Adlercreutz, desde los años 1970, ha desarrollado técnicas y materiales basados en tradiciones y conocimientos antiguos de minerales. Precio incluye talleres, materiales, alojamiento, desayunos y cenas, excluyendo los gastos de viaje.

Más informacíon/ more information 

Welcome to harvest  OLIVE OIL in Andalusía, Málaga 

How are ancient olive trees harvested? How is olive oil made? What are some great ways to use olive oil?
A guided workshop; description of olive varietals, care and maintanence of olive trees, instruction and participation in olive havesting, great traditional food, olive pressing and oil production, soap making and much more.

490 € /person  (@ 4 guests)
Included in the fee (5 days):
Transport from Málaga, accommodations, local transport, guidning, history, olive picking, visit to the cooperative press, breakfast, tapas and home cooked Andalusian welcome dinner. Other meals: self catering or restaurant/bar.

DATES:  choose dates between 10 nov - 10 mars. We also organize 1-, 2-, och 3-day workshops – or, you can extend you visit with as many day as you like for a little extra fee – booking allowing.

History – havest – food. In Andalusia olives have been cultivated for more than 3000 years. Spain has more olive trees and produces more olive oil than any other country in the world, and of course with the highest quality. In the small, authentic village of Cútar the methods utilized to cultivate olive are still very traditional, from family owned ancient groves. read more. Accomodations in 2-, or 3, bed rooms at laCultura, our small intimate hostel in the middle of the village.

CONTACT US ABOUT YOUR DESIRED DATES and INQUIRY OF AVAILABILTY     Let’s go / laCultura

day 1
18.00  Transfer from Málaga/airport
19.00  Arrival to Cútar                  
20.30  Home-cooked
Andalusian  dinner
22.00  Discussion on olives and local environment.

day 2
9.30  Short hike to olive groves
- Andalusian campesino breakfast,
- About varietals and harvest
- group work
14.00  Lunch at local restaurant
16.00  guided excursion/hike
20.30  Wine, tapas and conversation in Cútar

day 3
9.00 Breakfast
10.00  Hike to groves, group work
14.00  Lunch at local restaurant
15.30  Tour of medieval Vélez-Málaga
20.30  Wine, tapas and conversation in Cútar

day 4         
9.30  Hike to olive groves
- -Andalusian breakfast
-group work
12.00  Delivery of olives to the press and coop Los Romanes14.00  Lunch at local restaurant, excursion or hike
21.30 To the groves to burn prunings, better than fireworks

day 5
Closing breakfast
Departure to Málaga

The above schdedule is preliminary. For example weather we cannot control, which can mean changes.  All meals included except for those at restaurants, which are always quite reasonable.

Concrete is used more than any other man-made material in the world. About 7.5 cubic kilometers of concrete are made each year--more than one cubic meter for every person on earth.

Concrete solidifies and hardens after mixing with water, cement and aggregate due to a chemical process known as hydration. The water reacts with the cement, which bonds the other components together, eventually creating a robust stone-like material. In Spain concrete is used to make architectural structures, pavements, pipe, foundations, roads, bridges/overpasses, brick/block walls and footings for gates, fences and poles etc  -  and to make art. The first week of August Judy Farrar held a workshop in Concrete Art at laCultura. Above are some examples of what she showed us:

Jason deCaires Taylor was born in 1974 to an English father and Guyanese mother, spending the earlier part of his life growing up in Europe, Asia and the Caribbean.In May 2006 he gained international recognition for creating the world’s first underwater sculpture park in Grenada, West Indies. His underwater sculptures, designed to create artificial reefs for marine life to colonise and inhabit, embrace the transformations wrought by ecological processes. The works engage with a vision of the possibilities of a sustainable future, portraying human intervention as positive and affirmative.

Eduardo Chillida was born San Sebastian in northern Spain 1924 and is  perhaps one of Europe’s most prolific sculptors of the 20th century. His work is installed throughout Europe, Iran, Japan and the United States. In 1984, he and his wife bought the Zabalaga farmhouse in the town of Hernani, just outside of San Sebastian.  They would slowly expand the property and restore the farmhouse until it was ready for unveiling as the Chillida-Leku Museum in 2000. Unfortunately, Eduardo died in 2002.

Isac Cordal started the Cement Eclipses project in 2006 in Barcelona. Since then, the mini installations have spread over cities like Berlin, London, Brussels and now, Amsterdam. They are like the three dimensional family members of Claire Harvey’s little lonely characters that she painted on transparent foil; they look somewhat lost in their surroundings too.

A newer addition to Spanish architectural structures made out of concrete  is The Barcelona Torre Agbar or Agbar Tower from 2005. It iis a 38-storey tower located between Avinguda Diagonal and Carrer Badajoz, near Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes, which marks the gateway to the new technological district of Barcelona. It combines several different architectural concepts, resulting in a structure built with reinforced concrete, covered with a facade of glass, with over 4,500 window openings cut out of the structural concrete.

Please mail us if you would like to know more about the workshop - or are interested in enrolling in a future course

Open House  Aug 6, 8 p.m. Results from a workshop
Our guest teacher, Judy Farrar, community artist, sculpturer and scenographer with long experince of collaborative projects in Spain and in London, England, will be here to answer all your questions.
Welcome to laCultura, c/Cura 8. Cútar.  Mail us if you want to know more about art and concrete but couldn't make it to the Open House.  Or, if you want to know more about courses:  go to courses.

How does one harvest century old olive trees?
OLIVE OIL in La Axarquía, Málaga - Course: OLIVE OIL production, tradition, food

Now during the summer months the olive oil cooperatives in Los Romanes and Periana are closed for production, open only for sales as long as supply lasts. The olive trees are full of small green jewels ripening in the summer sun. Before the harvest in November, work will begin clearing the ground under the trees, so that olives which fall to the ground can be picked up before netting is placed underneath to catch the olives which fall when branches are hit with sticks or vibrated mechanically. These fresh olives are taken to the cooperative within 24 hrs to be pressed to produce Extra Virgen Olive Oil.

Cútar is in La Axarquía, the fertile costal valley just east of Malaga. Olive oil is said to have been produced here since the time when Phoencians brought olive trees here from the Eastern Mediterranean some 3000 years ago. In the ancient world the olive tree was the source of life. It served to adorn the food of humanity, to alleviate its injuries, to give force to their bodies and light their nights.

However, it was the Romans who definitely filled the Iberian Peninsula with olive trees, and improved cultivation and oil production. The importance of Iberian oil to the Empire was huge. Spanish oil amphorae have been found in all Roman provinces, though most was of course was destined to Rome itself. Mount Testaccio in the city is a testament to the size of the trade. This artificial hill is made up of 40 million amphorae discarded during the first 250 years of the Common Era, most of which are from the Iberian Peninsula. Hadrian even had a coin struck bearing the picture of an olive branch and the inscription "Hispania".

Today Spain has more olive trees and produces more olive oil than any other country in the world - and an oil of the highest quality. In addition, the absolute largest production is here in Andalusía.

In 2009 Spain produced 41.2% of the world’s olive oil. The province of Jaen alone, just north of the province of Málaga, accounts for 20% of the world’s production. There olive cultivation and oil production is a major industry. As far as the eye can see there are thousands of hectares of rolling hills of evenly dispersed rows of olive trees, the majority of which are the varietal picual.

In Cútar, however, cultivation is from century-old trees, some said to have been planted by the Moors. The most common cultivars are verdiales and picudo, still family owned, pressing their olives at local cooperatives and thereby creating an artisan crafted oil, smooth, fresh, sweet and delicious.

 
Here, most all food preparation is connected to olive oil: gazpacho, ajo blanco, vegetables, fish and meat stews, breads and pastries, since olive oil is the only oil used. Olive oil is even used to deep fry fish and squid, very common to Málaga. Oil which is not used within 2 yrs – oil is a fresh product that deteriorates with time - is used to make an excellent natural soap, and to a lesser degree today, as lamp oil.

We are now accepting interest applications for possible workshops in OLIVE OIL production - Tending groves, harvesting, processing, cuisine, soap production and other oil uses.

Possible times for workshops during the harvest, for a maximum of 6 people, would be the month of November, beginning of December, or end of January and the month of February.

Duration between 1 – 5 days

Content of workshops, at a minimum, include worker's breakfast in olive grove, description of olive types, cultivars, harvest process, harvesting, local Axarquia meal, visit to and guided tour of cooperative press with a description of a very natural process of extracting oil, rounded off with an evening of tapas and wine.

Additional days would be filled with workshop in soap production and other oil uses, more fine indigenous culinary delights, as well as other cooperative press visits and/or other local food production sites, goat cheese, honey and wine, and/or historical site tours of the ancient surrounding pueblos. All fixed or agreed upon.

see more or mail us

Contemporary Art & Workshop: Concrete
Aug 1  -  Aug 7 2011     subject to changes

monday
from 15.00 arrival (snacks)
17.00 introduction: presentation of Cútar, course and participants
19.00 Cement and how sculptors use it - slides and talk
20.30 welcome dinner

tuesday
9.30-11.00  On Contemporary Art, intro
11.30-13.00 Introduction to the workshops. What is concrete? Its properties and uses as an art material.
shopping for groceries, dinner and siesta  
17.00-18.30  Workshop 1 - casting
19.30 workshop
22.00 evening meal

wednesday
9.00-10.00 On site specifik art. Task 
10-13.00 workshop - removing and reviewing castings
13.30-16.30 dinner and siesta
17.00-19.00 workshop 2 - modelling
19.00-21.00 presentation: work in progress
22.00 evening meal

thursday
9.00-10.30 on Contemporary Art España + on CAC
11.00-13.30 workshop 3 - carving
13.30-16.30 dinner and siesta
17.00-18.00 on Community work in the Arts,
18.00-22.00 workshop
22.00 evening meal

friday
07.00-20.00 Malaga. (CAC: Centro Artes Contemporaneo,m.m.)
20.00-22.00 workshop 4 - surface treatments

saturday
9.00-13.00 completion, discussion
13.30-16.30 middag och siesta
17.00 conclusions
20.00 Open House

sunday
11.00 evaluation

Contemporary art and Concrete sculpture -one week residential course 1st-7th August
Cost – 20 euros per day plus materials
Learn how to cast, model and carve your own concrete sculptures. Be inspired by some of the work of the world´s greatest contemporary sculptors. See how an underwater concrete city was created and populated in the coral reefs of the Caribbean Sea. Discover why people in major European cities are encountering groups of tiny concrete figures lurking in the streets.
Discover the world of Contemporary Art – including talks on and slide shows on site specific art and Contemporary Spanish artists.  All this in the idyllic setting of  Cútar - one of the prettiest villages in the Axarquia. How can you resist?
For more information email : info@lacultura.cc

This is just draft,
a Preliminary schedule for 2011-2012 @ laCultura
welcome with ideas, input, suggestions... (each workshop is week, there is plenty of time and room for b&b and other actvities)

Nov: Olive Oil / Phoenician Andaluz: guided tours, history, olive picking
Dec: Christmas in Spain, 2 days all-inclusive
Jan : Olive Oil / Roman Andaluz: guided tours, history, olive picking
Feb: Olive Oil / Moorish Andaluz: guided tours, history, olive picking
March: Raku ceramics
April: Semana Santa /Easter  
May : Federico García Lorca, workshop  
June: Contemporary Art, workshop, landscape/landart  
July: Contemporary Art, workshop, painting  
Aug: Contemporary Art, workshop, concrete  
Sept: Astrology equinox
Oct: Monfi Festival, Moorish history

Steven Dixon’s passionate lectures where philosophy and art so obviously flowed together

This summer's first workshop is over and the participants have left. It was a wonderful week. Steven Dixon’s passionate lectures where philosophy and art so obviously flowed together, Harri Monni’s workshops where we unexpectedly found ourselves painting landscapes in velvet black darkness - everything we carry with us into the rest of the beautiful summer.
Thanks to you all and welcome back.