Inside Out in Madrid: Las manolas y los manolos de Cascorro

At the end of November I blogged about a public art display I had seen in September in Madrid, but hadn't known what it was.

Readers Mary and Kris commented (thank you!) and left me this link.  That site is all in Spanish, so I'll translate and summarize a bit:

The art project was called "Las manolas y los Manolos de Cascorro," and it strove to showcase the diverse community of Cascorro, the neighborhood/plaza in which the project was displayed.  This in turn was to represent the diverse community that is society.  They took pictures of 76 people that had been walking down the street in that area, and with the help and support of the neighbors that offered their balconies for the project, put the portraits on display.

Las manolas y los manolos de Cascorro
Photo Source: El País

The cultural association "La mitocondria" collaborated with the Italian photographer Antonio Arcaro and the neighbors of the area, in order to make this art project a success.

This was actually an Inside Out project, inspired by street artist JR's TED talk that he gave last year when he was named winner of TED Prize 2011:



If you don't want to watch, the top banner of the Inside Out website provides the gist of what it's about: "A global art project transforming messages of personal identity into works of art.  1. Upload a poster  2. Receive a poster  3. Paste it for the world to see  Participate Now".  And here's what the website's "About" section reads:

"I wish for you to stand up for what you care about by participating in a global art project, and together we'll turn the world...INSIDE OUT." – JR

INSIDE OUT is a large-scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work. Everyone is challenged to use black and white photographic portraits to discover, reveal and share the untold stories and images of people around the world. These digitally uploaded images will be made into posters and sent back to the project’s co-creators for them to exhibit in their own communities. People can participate as an individual or in a group; posters can be placed anywhere, from a solitary image in an office window to a wall of portraits on an abandoned building or a full stadium. These exhibitions will be documented, archived and viewable virtually."

If anyone's interested in reading the article that appeared in El País about the project in Madrid, it can be found here.

I had actually seen this TED Talk in 2011 when the prize was awarded to JR, so I was really excited to find out that this art project was a part of his Inside Out challenge.  That's one of the great things about living in a European capitol city.