AFTER-SHOW: ZEITPORTRÄTS with Valentina Gaia Lops
VALENTINA GAIA LOPS. Transdisciplinary artist, researcher, and mediator. After over a decade in Ireland, they currently live and work in Barcelona, where they develop a practice focused on participatory art. Their work activates spaces of encounter and experience, centered on the poetic and political power of collective artistic processes. Using a transdisciplinary methodology that intertwines visual arts, dance, photography, and performance, they approach art as a tool for social transformation, placing care at the core of their proposals.
They are the founder of Liberarte, based at the Centre Cívic Can Verdaguer— a participatory arts-based research space where cultural workers and the intergenerational local community share knowledge and experiences, activating processes through collective artistic practices.
They co-coordinate the project Cuerpos en escucha: el arte como espacio agencial para la creación de encuentros y experiencias (“Bodies in Listening: Art as an Agentic Space for the Creation of Encounters and Experiences”), with which they participated in the Unzip 22 program and developed a series of participatory projects. These include the “occupation” of Fabra i Coats as part of the FAACCC 2023 festival, as well as participation in the EnResidència program, which supports contemporary creative processes in public secondary schools in Barcelona.
They created the laboratory De la imatge al cos (“From Image to Body”) at the Centre Cívic Barceloneta—a weekly creative space that offers an approach to experiential arts from a neurodivergent, transfeminist, and intersectional perspective, prioritizing coexistence, care, and non-normative rhythms.
They are a mediator for the Grup d’Acció Creativa (G.A.C.) within the EixJove youth program, and a member of Corso, a collective dedicated to participatory research and mediation. With Corso, they are developing a residency at Fabra i Coats focused on the relationship between art, health, and territory.
They are currently participating in the Temporals exhibition series with the work Noves Vies (“New Paths”), an interactive installation that can be visited at the Convent de Sant Agustí until July 4, 2025, exploring the intersections between art, territory, and community.
