Pool is cool & Dallas: Siluroño at Concéntrico

POOL IS COOL and collectif Dallas developed the project Siluroño for Concentrico#9 which will take place in Logroño from 27^th April until May 2^nd 2023.

Siluroño is not about the fish or fishing. It’s about stories that shape the mental map of citizens about public space or certain areas of a city. These stories are often nothing more than prejudices, urban myths that someone heard of someone, rarely based on facts. However, they are a strong determinator of how people think about their environment, usually with a negative connotation, in the form of stigmata. About places that are unsafe, places that are expensive, places that are dirty, places that areinaccessible, places that are „owned“ by certain communities, places that are boring or places that are overcrowded or „only for the tourists“. As vague and imprecise they are, as important is their impact on the habits of people and subsequently the use and appropriation of public space and even urban developments in general, often with social and financial consequences.

Water is an exemplary case, often deemed polluted and unsafe. During their stay in Logroño in 2022 and their research along the river Ebro, the ‚siluro‘ (catfish) played an important role in the image that people have of the river. Mostly depicted as a monster that eats everything (but that nobody has ever seen as such, only on social media), it became for them the symbol of their project that wants to question the role of the Ebro for the citizens of Logroño and the image they have of their river.

Their intervention for the 2023 edition of Concentrico will be a tribute to the Siluro, the animal and the symbol, and its habitat, the Ebro river.

During the festival, installations are swift and stay only for a few days. As such, their objective is to make the most of these few days with a thorough activation of the Siluro pavilion. The activations have the mythical fish as a centerpoint: catching and cooking Siluro; screening film(s) related to the fish, the river, the water; tribute rituals to the fish; multidisciplinary talks on the subject of the river and its relation to the city; fishermen and fisherwomen telling their stories; expeditions to search for the imaginary giant red Siluro; and maybe even a swim with the Siluros.

Therefore, their built infrastructure will adapt to the needs of these activities, shifting from being a kitchen, to a screen, a stage, a temple or a beach. It will evolve throughout the week.

The infrastructure will be built with the reclaimed panels from the 2022 installation Half Void Full Moon by Piovenefabi, for efficiency and as a tribute to the previous pavilion.