IP34. Stone, Transmutation, and Life in Common

Atzeneta del Maestrat, Castellón
Stone, Transmutation, and Life in Common is the contemporary artistic research project developed by Ana Sánchez and Rafael Tormo in the Penyagolosa Commonwealth, specifically in Atzeneta del Maestrat. The proposal aims to rethink popular heritage and create new shared narratives, facilitating moments of reflection, contemplation, and connection with art and popular culture through local testimonies.
One of the central axes of this project is the cataloging of lime kilns, to record their exact location and number in the territory, as well as the recovery and operation of the old Lime Kiln of Madonya, located in Atzeneta. However, it is not about redeeming memory through cataloging, but about showing that there are common knowledges that persist today. Active listening, shared reflection, and the intersection between memories, art, and popular culture transmit emotions and symbols, generating an "ephemeral" experience in an environment marked by forgetfulness and popular history, such as the lime kilns.
From this perspective, the project proposes a poetic action on spaces that have not yet been heritage-listed, posing de-heritagization as a strategy to question the systemic reproduction of hegemonic discourses. De-heritagizing does not mean destroying their foundations, but reviewing and questioning the social representation of "past" things, opening the door to a new appreciation of their relevance in current culture.
"Heritage is not only what has been preserved but also what remains to be discovered and redefined." Pierre Nora