Vamos al Mercado: Pedagogies in the niches of the 10 de Agosto Market.

Abstract

“Vamos al Mercado” is a participatory art project that proposes the artistic production generated from testimonies and experiences inside the Mercado 10 de Agosto, in the city of Cuenca, Ecuador. The project contemplates a collective artistic laboratory through pedagogical and participatory methodologies aimed mainly at children and adolescents who work with their parents in the market. This document narrates the challenges, learning and lessons that the application of the project in situ has left over eight months. Each registered exercise, testimony or experience will be contrasted with educational paradigms in order to warn the shortcomings of the old school in order to put similar artistic processes into practice, which risk leaving the workshop and soaking up reality within different contexts and social environments.