Faber is a unique and singular project (it is the first interdisciplinary residence with an international vocation in Catalonia) and has been running since September 12, 2016: in these 18 months of operation, it has organized fourteen thematic stays, hosted more than a hundred residents, and held around one hundred activities in schools, institutes, universities, and cultural centers in La Garrotxa, as well as in cities such as Barcelona, Girona, or Figueres. The writer Francesc Serés, with a background in fine arts, anthropology, and humanities, directs Faber, a project conceived by the Olot culture councilor, Josep Berga, and financed by the Olot City Council and the Generalitat de Catalunya. We spoke with Francesc Serés at the Faber facilities, located within the Riu Fluvià hotel in the capital of La Garrotxa: "The best thing of all is that it started working very well from the very beginning and the fact of being in a hotel is wonderful, you don't have to worry about the logistics and that is infinitely cheaper."
What are Faber's objectives?
To offer an ideal workspace for residents so they can develop their professional project, to foster coexistence among professionals from different fields to promote synergies between cultures and countries; and the third objective is to make all this talent available to the public. For this reason, during their time together, residents also collaborate in activities aimed at students, professionals, and the general public.
It must not be easy to manage and plan so many projects
The optimal stage would be to finalize between 8 and 9 projects a year, but we actually have a management problem. Having an excess of work that prevents you from doing it well, that's what we are learning to handle now. There are nationalities from which we have had to restrict participation - such as Canada or Finland - now we prioritize people from more distant countries... from Africa and South America.
Apart from planning, is there significant production work?
When these people arrive, we must think about the tasks they have proposed for us to do, for a good perception, but also the host institutions. Schools ask us for it a lot; to meet an architect who comes from Malaysia or mathematicians who will explain how they code... Everyone wants to meet these people. There are those who have studied the life of Saint Bridget because she caused a very strong storm when there was a battle and thus it stopped: this is culture of peace! It will be communicated, a network must be made, photography, Catalan and English, and another thing, which is the most important, you have to dedicate quality time to each of the residents, it is the secret of a project like this.
Is it a project designed only for Olot?
In Olot there is a cultural context that favors it, but Faber is a space for cultural and social return. We do not conceive of the residency as a physical space, but as the set of ideas, facts and activities. We want it to be a production center. From the links between residents, documents, studies, compilations of documentation and all kinds of tools and ideas should emerge. We want the residents' stay to have a positive impact on students, professionals and citizens. And yes, Faber is perfectly clonable to other places like Vic, La Seu or Reus.
Now there is dance and they are already preparing psychology...
Lexicon is an international collaboration between dance artists who speak different languages to create a new performance together. And now we are already working hard on the free pedagogical innovation workshops that will be held at the end of April. But in the first stay of 2018, on urbanism, there were specialists from Zimbabwe, Baghdad, the United States, Russia, Canada, Italy and Catalonia. Afterwards, we have had 17 professionals in a stay on feminism, the most ambitious and international carried out so far in the residency. One of the measures of this success comes from the internationalization of those who participate. This success is also evidenced by a detail that is not anecdotal: the trip, from anywhere in the world to Faber, is paid by each resident and once here only the stay is covered.