📅 May 5–7, 2025
📍 Can Caló, Mieres
🤝 In collaboration with: NyamNyam
A Space to Deepen Creative, Participatory Methodologies
The IMBRACE project is preparing for a three-day methodological retreat in early May, hosted in collaboration with the artist-researcher collective NyamNyam. Held at their rural base in Can Caló (Mieres), this retreat will offer space to deepen our engagement with feminist, participatory, creative, and situated methodologies—hallmarks of both IMBRACE and NyamNyam’s approaches.
Fine-Tuning IMBRACE’s Participatory Tools
This gathering will be a key moment to refine how we implement specific participatory methods within IMBRACE, including BodyMaps, Postcards from the Future, Walk-alongs, and Climate Relief Maps. These tools are central to our work with marginalized and racialized communities, helping us co-produce knowledge and communicate our findings in accessible, engaging ways—through video, photography, and other forms of creative expression.
Learning from NyamNyam’s Situated Artistic Practices
NyamNyam (Ariadna Rodríguez and Iñaki Álvarez) bring a rich background in research-action-art, developed over many years in both Barcelona and the Garrotxa region. One of their standout initiatives is Vivim en un món devorat, which explores how culture—especially in rural contexts—can drive transitions toward more inclusive, socially just, and ecologically sound futures.
The project experiments with formats like interviews, audiovisual storytelling, participatory exhibitions, and intergenerational workshops, showcasing how local knowledge and creativity can spark dialogue and social transformation.
Shared Ethos: Locally Grounded, Imaginative Research
This ethos resonates deeply with IMBRACE’s goals: to center experiences of migration, climate adaptation, and public health through localized, collaborative, and arts-based practices.
The retreat will also draw inspiration from NyamNyam’s participation in the PLANT (Performing Life Akademia Network) project, which supports experimentation in contextual artistic practices that connect art, ecology, and everyday life. Their work emphasizes not just where practices take place, but how they’re shaped by people, histories, and the materialities of place.
Why This Collaboration Matters
By hosting this retreat in the same space where NyamNyam’s work unfolds, we aim to learn with and from their methods—generating vital cross-pollination between research and artistic practice. This collaboration is not just about knowledge exchange; it’s about rethinking how we do research in ways that are rooted, responsive, and imaginative.
Stay tuned for more updates as the retreat unfolds!
