DIGESTION AND CREATION
BELASKOENEA SCHOOL, Irún
Curricular subject: Science
23 students, 2nd grade
Teachers: Liber Etxeberria, Eider Amorrortu
Artist: Manu Muniategiandikoetxea
Language: Basque
The children in this group had to answer the questions, “How does our digestive system work?” and “What happens in your mouth and stomach when you eat?” A parallel was drawn between digestion and the artistic process: just like the human body when it digests and processes food, the students “digested” the materials and shaped them into sculptures in a creative and proactive approach to understand how the human body works.
In the words of Manu Muniategiandikoetxea, “We focused on the digestive system and fancied ourselves as mouths and teeth, watering, crushing, and grinding materials as stomach acid or gut flora do with food. We replicated every digestive process with our materials: paper, cardboard, clay, plaster… We cut, we crushed, we wetted, we stacked. And then we shaped and colored the outcomes. Art is just about asking questions and trying to understand things in a different way.”
The project consisted in having schoolchildren take part in a creative process, start from a driving idea, use materials, analyze the work done, and choose what to create with it.