{"id":22219,"date":"2012-05-08T20:33:01","date_gmt":"2012-05-08T19:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.makeatuvida.net\/?p=22219"},"modified":"2025-09-24T12:42:02","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T11:42:02","slug":"plaza-o-b-n-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.makeatuvida.net\/en\/plaza-o-b-n-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Plaza \/\/ O.B.N.I."},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/4″][vc_column_text el_class=”texto-info”]Date:<\/strong> April-May, 2012<\/p>\n

Location:<\/strong> Quito, Ecuador.<\/p>\n

Organized by:<\/strong> Quito Centre for Contemporary Art \u2013 CAC<\/a><\/p>\n

Coordinated by: <\/strong>Alberto Flores, Mireia Juan.<\/p>\n

Participants: <\/strong>David Romero, Isidro Iturralde, Sergio Calder\u00f3n, Lucas \u00c1lvarez, Gary Vera, Juan Subia, Henar Diez, Carolina, Camilo Castillo and rest of Parkour Sur Quito<\/a> team, women of Asociaci\u00f3n de Mujeres Emprendedoras del Barrio Am\u00e9rica Antiguo Hospital Militar (AHM), students of Facultad de Artes de la Universidad Central de Quito<\/a> and students of Facultad de Arquitectura de la Universidad Central de Quito<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A special thanks to Ana Rodr\u00edguez, Alejandro Cevallos, Pedro Cagigal, Beto Noboa, Al Borde<\/a> (Pascual, Esteban, Mal\u00fa y Helena), and to all those who have made this project a reality and have collaborated in the construction process of La P\u00edcara Juana.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]
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From April 20 to May 5 we worked on the O.B.N.I. – Ocupaci\u00f3n Barrial No Invasiva<\/strong> (Non-Invasive Neighbourhood Squat, a pun with the Spanish acronym for UFO) workshop, which proposed an intervention in the back lot of the Quito Centre for Contemporary Art \u2013 CAC<\/a>, renamed by neighbourhood residents and participants as La P\u00edcara Juana (Crafty Juana), initiating a process of transformation of the public space around CAC to benefit the residents of the neighbourhood of San Juan.<\/p>\n

The workshop involved carrying out a process already initiated by CAC together with the neighbourhood, moving past the analysis and reflection stages to a process of incorporating the residents’ wishes and needs into the creation and furbishing of a space. This is an important step towards social empowerment, collective action and neighbourhood occupation of derelict spaces.<\/p>\n

La P\u00edcara Juana aims to be a space that meets the needs of residents living in San Juan and Quito in general, a place for social gatherings, recreation and self-governance. After being closed off to the public for so many years, it will become a place for creating cultural alternatives that strengthen the social fabric of the neighbourhood while building new relationships among associations.<\/p>\n

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During the development of the workshop, participants worked intensively to imagine new uses for a space that would transform the wishes and needs of the neighbourhood into reality. They proposed new horizons by experimenting with materials from the Interactive Museum of the City (MIC), as well as top-quality materials left over from the exhibit ‘The Quito Revolution’, which were just sitting in the CAC’s warehouses.<\/p>\n

La P\u00edcara Juana is fundamentally a place for the development of four types of furnishings that convert the space into a multifunctional and multipurpose venue. Part of the activities will be linked to a covered space<\/strong> constructed for the development of social and cultural activities (from meetings and assemblies to concerts, exhibitions and open-air film series). A greenhouse<\/strong> has also been planned for the community garden, which will be tended based on self-organisation and distribution of work among the neighbourhood residents, taking guidance from training courses at CONQUITO, the Metropolitan Agency for Economic Development. Another proposal has been to implement a space for parkour training<\/strong> and practice because there are so few spaces designated for this sport in the city. There was also a proposal to furnish the rest of this space with urban outdoor furnishings<\/strong>, creating lounging areas for gathering and connecting with others in the plaza of La P\u00edcara Juana<\/p>\n

You can check the project report here:<\/p>\n

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