A Castle in Ruins. Decoding the Empire
Daniel G. Andújar
A HISTORY
The Real Sitio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial (the Monastery of El Escorial), as you will know, is a large building complex (a palace, the monastery itself, a museum and a library) set in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, a town 45km northwest of Madrid, in the Region of Madrid (Spain). The name El Escorial owes its name to the ancient slag (“escoria” in Spanish) deposits left by an ironworks in a village near the place where this group of buildings was erected -upon the orders of king Philip II- to commemorate Spain’s victory in the battle of St Quentin on the 10th of August, 1557, against the troops of King Henry II of France. Furthermore, it would serve as a burial place for the remains of Philip II’s parents, Emperor Charles I and Isabella of Portugal, as well as his own and those of his descendants. The building’s floor plan and its towers are reminiscent of the shape of a grill, which has led to the claim that it was built in this way in order to pay homage to St Lawrence, who was martyred in Rome by being grilled on a gridiron, and whose saint’s day is celebrated on the 10th of August, the day of the Battle of St Quentin; hence the name of the building complex, San Lorenzo, and the town which emerged around it. Prestige and power were built on slag, commemorating victory in battle and honouring a martyred saint. In addition, St Lawrence had been one of the deacons of Rome, in charge of the administration of Church goods. For this duty, he is regarded as one of the first archivists and treasurers of the Church and was made the patron saint of librarians. All of this gives rise to a series of linked metaphors which would inspire any self-respecting artist.
ARQUITECTURAS DE LA CULTURA DEL MAÑANA-MAÑANA
III sesión: el archivo y la red. 11 de diciembre de 2008.
grupo de trabajo que se reune periódicamente para debatir acerca de las interacciones entre los centros culturales, la arquitectura, la ciudad y sus habitantes, en torno a reuniones mensuales en Medialab-Prado que contarán con la presencia de diferentes invitados, y se apoyará en el trabajo online tanto previo como posterior a estas sesiones11 didiembre, 2009
La tercera sesión del grupo de trabajo Arquitecturas de la cultura del mañana-mañana estuvo dedicada al tema “El archivo y la red: organización, distribución y acceso al conocimiento”. A continuación un intento de recoger algunos de los asuntos que se hablaron en esta larga sesión, se agradecen comentarios sobre posibles imprecisiones u omisiones.
La sesión se planteó como un taller y discusión con el artista Daniel García Andújar.
Who talks about art today?
documenta 12 magazines, Zehar Who talks about art today?-Daniel García Andujar When we considered organising a debate on the teaching of art, on the one hand we wanted to include the “educational memory” built up at Arteleku which, like a “rolling stone”, seemed to us to be “alive” and, on the other, we wished to open up a discussion on the current teaching of art (music, architecture, and so on), based on the comments and accounts of people with experience in official and non-official education who have worked together with Arteleku and/or Zehar. By taking an analysis of the various educational practices and experiences that we have been familiar with as a starting point and, as we are aware of how important education is becoming in modern societies, we decided to issue a call for contributions and raise a series of questions that would help us to discover and disseminate the ideas that the agents involved in teaching art are working on:
