Dennis Hollingsworth: AIRCAT Summer: Studio Espai Colomer

September 10, 2019

AIRCAT Summer: Studio Espai Colomer

AIRCAT (Artists in Residency, Catalunya) is able to operate due to the generous collaboration by the city government of Tossa de Mar (aka l'ajuntament in Catalan). They have provided AIRCAT with the three critical elements that a residency program needs: a place to reside, a place to create art and a place to exhibit art. What we are providing Tossa is the ability to bridge the contemporary art world, ending an interregnum that has lasted since the evaporation of a vital artistic presence in that remote seaside refuge in the 1940's & 50's.

Espai Colomer is the name of a civic multipurpose space immediately adjacent to the Casa de Cultura. The name derives from a gentleman who performed a remarkable amount of humanitarian work in his time, his portrait adorning the entryway there, such is their affection for him. The Casa de Cultura is the main cultural administrative office of the pueblo. Located near the entrance to town, just below the bus station on Avinguda Pelegri (Pilgrim's Avenue), it also sits across the street from an archeological excavation of Roman ruins, the ancient roots of Tossa de Mar. As a studio space, it is ample in size and it has plenty of the amenities critical to a well functioning group studio: air conditioning (June can be mild but the temps crank up the deeper into the summer you go), an actual commercial kitchen, bathrooms with a shower, and of course all the tables and chairs six artist will ever need.

To be honest, when we first saw the space, I was crestfallen. The original plan was to use the attic space of the museum. Centrally located in a fabulous historical structure, tucked behind the walls of the muralla, right next door to Codolar Cove, two floors above the actual space of the exhibition... the place is dripping with romance. But the reality would have been that in short order, the place would have turned into a sauna, and it wouldn't be romance that would be dripping then. Being situated in Espai Colomer was one of the first of several great fortunes that AIRCAT enjoy this summer.

Here and below, Chef/Caterer extraordinaire Laia Farré visited AIRCAT studio Espai Colomer for inspiration for a collaborative project during the inaugural opening festivities.

When Avital Yomdin created what I will refer to in this blog "Littoral Spawn" (an upcoming blogpost will document more of this), here mentor Gerald Smulevich is shooting Littoral Spawn portraits, starting with Avital herself.

Courtyard between Espai Colomer and the Casa de Cultura, a former hospital in antiquity and now an administrative center for cultural events in Tossa.