In December 2019, Laura Ginès and Pepon Meneses co-directed a video essay entitled “Jugar al carrer” ( “Playing in the Street” ) for “Soy Camara” – an online TV programme produced by Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB).
“Urban spaces of play are designated as separate zones, segregating them from the bustle and chaos of the city. This separation destroys the very nature of play and what it has always been: learning to live together and relate with the world. This episode of ‘Soy Cámara’ is a nostalgic celebration of the street as a place of growing up, something which the zoning of cities may no longer provide” – explains the artists.
Published exactly one year later, as a part of a collage created by Laura Ginès for “The Virtual Canvas” website, the video gains new meanings placed in a new context of the pandemic reality.
What will be the long term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on public space? Will the street remain a place for free play and spontaneous social interaction? If so, in what ways?
“Playing in the Street” (“Jugar al carrer”), 2019
Produced by: Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona
Directors: Laura Ginès and Pepon Meneses
Editing: Laura Ginès and Taller Estampa
‘Soy cámara’ team: Víctor Diago
Proofreader: Jaume Ortolà
English subtitles: Cruz Rodríguez Juiz
SEE THE PROJECT > www.thevirtualcanvas.site
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Laura Ginès is and an independent filmmaker based in Barcelona. A graduate in Illustration, Art and Design. Some of her films are part of Xcèntric Archive, the experimental program of CCCB (The Barcelona Center of Contemporary Culture), and they have been screened in specialised cinemas like the Cinemàteque of San Francisco, Anthology Film Archives of New York or Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid.
She runs her own art in motion studio. She is a lecturer in storytelling in Elisava, Barcelona School of Design and Engineering. She is also a member of Cranc, a team of filmmakers that organizes experimental film projections in an old printing house.
Playing in the Street is a part of The Virtual Canvas online exhibition.