Using art as a social inclusion instrument in the Iberian Peninsula
The Public Art program's main goal is to use Art as an instrument to achieve social inclusion and development in local communities. This program crosses two key areas for Fundação EDP - art with social inclusion and community development. Focused on areas outside major urban centres, this project aims at providing access to art and involving the population in new cultural experiences, as well as stimulating local development through the creation of works of public art in rural areas.
In Portugal, this project is curated by Fundação EDP, and artists are invited to develop a process of collaboration with local populations, encouraging them to participate in community assemblies to discuss proposals for artistic intervention to be carried out in public spaces (facades of buildings, walls, E-Redes transformer station, etc.). The project foresees partnerships with local institutions and communities. These partners are invited to collaborate from the initial phase of the projects to their implementation, with the aim of also supporting the promotion and dissemination of public art routes created locally.
Started in 2015, the project is already present in 31 locations - in the Algarve, Alentejo, Ribatejo, Médio-Tejo and Trás-os-Montes, Alto Douro, Minho and Beira Baixa. Xana, Alexandre Farto aka Vhils, Luís Silveirinha, Manuel João Vieira, Mariana A Miserável and Menau are some of the approximately 50 artists and collectives who signed the 139 interventions carried out on the ground.
In Spain, in the first edition (2020), in collaboration with the Municipality of Ribera de Arriba, three lines of action were established: The creation of an exhibition space in the parish of Bueño; the enlargement of a building for municipal services; the Bairro de la Llosa, with social integration of vulnerable people.
The new edition, in collaboration with the Municipality of Tineo, in Asturias, (currently in the analysis phase of the proposals received), reinforces the positioning and commitment of the EDP group to sustainability and innovation, stimulating creativity and new ideas for transformation of public space based on sustainable urbanism.
