ARTISTS UNDER CONSTRUCTION. FabLab Feito na casa [HOME-MADE FABLAB]

ARTISTS AND TROUPES

Building on an initial base installation, further artists will be incorporated over time through micro-installations or artistic-pedagogical proposals, always under the same premise: every proposal must be devised or activated collectively — the “troupes”.

This means that actions and projects are never undertaken by solo artists, but are always mediated by a team, group or crew that works regularly with the artist. This may take the form of an association, a collective, a student body or a specific group, actively involved in the creation, decision-making or activation of the proposal. This clearly steers the profile of the participating artist towards a pedagogical model, in which collaboration is built in from the outset.

Each Troupe has full autonomy over the proposal it develops within the whole, complementing what already exists — layering its actions onto previous ones, or allowing them to coexist with earlier interventions — within a logic of infinite accumulation.

In parallel, over the following months, MARCO's Education team will develop activation and mediation proposals within the space, working with a range of target groups: school parties, young audiences, families, associations and groups with specific needs. 

The workshop space

The heart of the project, and its scenic backdrop, is a fabrication workshop, complete with storage areas and worktables for building and transforming materials: an exhibition under construction, with the factory itself built into the installation.

The guiding idea is to reproduce, in essence, the carpentry workshop and storerooms from MARCO's basement within the ground-floor Patio A3 — making the craft and its technique visible, and linking them to their underlying philosophy, in this case through play, through the construction toy. A tribute to making, and to thinking through making.

Alongside work with immaterial elements — chiefly light and sound — the room is stocked with a range of materials chosen to showcase constructive techniques collectively: wooden battens, cardboard tubes of varying diameters and lengths, ropes, netting, rubber bands, fabrics and blocks, industrial and recycled materials, and elements of natural origin besides.

Semper's four technical categories — textiles, ceramics, tectonics/carpentry and stereotomy/masonry — are thus represented both in their materiality and in the techniques that allow work by line, plane or block, as well as in their relationships and connections, whether through interlocking systems or other joining methods (zips, velcro, adhesives, staples, hardware), for assembling playful structures and artefacts.

The approach draws on the sensory, the dynamic, the kinetic, the bodily, the motor, the luminous and the acoustic.

The exhibition period begins at a moment zero, and the successive arrival of different artists and collectives will progressively expand the possibilities for play, following a cumulative, complementary logic — an ongoing process without end.

Collaboration with Ludantia

The installations in Patio A3 include a series of pieces designed by the Ludantia Association, on temporary loan to MARCO as part of the exhibition ARGALLAR, held at the Museum in autumn 2025: a series of construction modules conceived as play units, available for interaction with the public.

Ludantia, arquitectura y educación is an independent, not-for-profit organisation bringing together individuals and collectives working on the dialogue between architecture, education, childhood and youth.

PARTICIPANTS / ARTISTS AND TROUPES / PROVISIONAL SCHEDULE

Phase 00
JULY 2026
“Balbordo na sala” [Ruckus in the Room] 

With Fermín G. Blanco (Mr. Lupo) and Víctor González García-Echave (Palitroques), architects and mediators of the Nenoarquitectura project + Troupe Asociación Escóitasme

With the collaboration of: Ana Cordero, seamstress and pattern-maker, LUPO and Palitroques

Troupe Asociación Escóitasme

Simón Pérez García / Nicolas Otero Castro / Lorenzo Regos Andrade / Óscar Lires Crecido / Pedro Capeáns Vieito / Paolo Salvati Vesevo / Mario Pastor González / Xoana Balirac Calvo / Noa González Reimúndez / Juan Queipo González

Conditioning and visual/acoustic adaptation of the space for subsequent interventions. The installation "Balbordo na sala" comprises a set of flying elements suspended from the ceiling. A circular body of textile ribbons helps improve the room's acoustics, and at its centre sits a kinetic structure in the form of a kaleidoscope, which the public and workshop participants can manipulate.

Around this central piece, the space is gradually laid out as a game board: material donated by collaborating companies, discarded items from the Museum's storerooms, materials regularly used by the Education department, instruments and tools — part artist's studio, part pedagogical recycling lab, a densely material backdrop that enhances acoustic absorption and visual effect, recreating the spirit of the workshop. 

Phase 00
JULY 2026
“Logos en construcción” [Logos under Construction]

With Alberto Ardid, artist and teacher at Fundación Igualarte + Troupe Diseñatas

Troupe Diseñatas
Helena Cuber Fernández, Iván Lago González, Rubén Bargiela Sierpes, Eva García González, Alberto Rodríguez Barcia, Loira Fernández Guardiola, Gustavo López Albir, Inés García Vázquez

Design of the project's graphic identity and logotype for use across communication and outreach materials, both within and beyond the room. Diseñatas is the graphic design team at Fundación Igualarte, specialising in creative solutions for multidisciplinary projects encompassing illustration, brand design and industrial design, always with an innovative, tailored approach.

Phase 01
JULY 2026
“O niño da pega” [The Magpie’s Nest]

With Elena Gómez Dahlgren, artist and teacher at IES Plurilingüe Terra de Turonio (Gondomar) + Troupe das pegas

Troupe das pegas
Gabriel Bratos Rodríguez / Helena Domínguez Durán / Lucía García Vargas / Alejandra González Barbosa / André Iglesias Núñez / Martina López Panadero / Lois Martínez Otero / Antía Montes Bóveda / Paula Parada Arias / Héctor Manuel Rial Martínez / Asier Rodríguez Rois / Adhara Romero Alonso

“As pegas” [The Magpies] is a troupe of teenagers from the Gondomar area, a largely rural district bordering Vigo. Restless birds with a gift for making, building and music, they like to fly freely and gather all manner of materials to build their nests. They call themselves artists, holding that art is play, and — like true artists — they hoard in their nests of creation what other species discard, making and remaking with whatever they find.

Their aim is to build nests as temporary homes within MARCO. Though seemingly chaotic, these nests follow the mathematical logic of growth found in nature, and are made with care and precision, while still leaving room for intuition and improvisation.

PARTICIPANTS / ARTISTS AND TROUPES / PROVISIONAL SCHEDULE

The process

1. Flying and gathering

“O niño da pega” began on 26 June with a first action of collecting materials in areas near MARCO and transporting them to the Museum — an action recorded on video as part of the process documentation.

2. Building and playing

Over several workshop sessions, they build different nests, working within certain rules while still leaving room for enjoyment and for whatever unfolds along the way.

3. Inhabiting and hiding

The nests function simultaneously as labyrinths and treasure chests. They are temporary homes, hiding places and shelters to take refuge in for a while. Visitors are invited to enter them, whether physically or in the imagination, and to bring along any object to hide, or to add to the construction.

4. Thinking and sharing

Before leaving the nests to be inhabited or dismantled, the magpies will talk and reflect on their creative process, discussing the common and the individual, the found and the built, the natural and the artificial, waste and recycling, their footprint on the environment and their responsibility as builders. They will challenge stereotypes about who we are and what we do, about what counts as an art object, and about the idea of authorship. They will prepare games and share what they have learned with other flocks, allowing the nests to be extended, transformed or inhabited in different ways.

Interlude / Visit Our Space

AUGUST 2026

During the month of August, the space will remain open and accessible to members of the public who wish to visit the room and interact with the elements and materials available at this stage of the project, following the guidance of gallery staff.

Phase 02
SEPTEMBER 2026
“Corpos” [Bodies]

With Alberto Ardid, artist and teacher at Fundación Igualarte, and Troupe Diseñatas / Fundación Igualarte

“Corpos” addresses the endless variety of bodies, personalities and attitudes we carry as people, and the way we interact, position ourselves and are positioned by others. A pictorial intervention on anthropomorphic wooden mobiles represents and highlights the individual richness and complexity that together make up an advanced society. Each piece combines human parts in a unique way, deconstructing the usual combinations. Working with toys as a medium is a clear nod to childhood, the stage of life in which we are shaped and must learn the importance of mutual support and of the collective — accepting all people, whoever they are, so as to build a more cooperative community.

Building on this, the Fundación Igualarte Troupe, led by Alberto Ardid, will design an installation specific to Patio A3, in which the wooden bodies/mobiles grow, branch out and occupy part of the space through intervention with other materials.

Phase 03

SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER 2026

Throughout the autumn, new actions and projects will continue to be added under the same participatory philosophy (artists + troupes), whether devised from scratch or contributed by artists and groups who take the space, materials and tools as a resource for creation, a site for research and prototyping, or a testing ground for projects already underway — an open proposal for the artistic and educational community. 

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