OCCUPIED SPACE

32 2nd-grade students at Ondarreta school, Andoain
Teacher: Maxux Eceiza
Artist: Maider López

How much space do we all take up together? How do we interact with our environment and each other? How many of us are needed to fill the space of the table? What about the doorway, the stairs, or the soccer field? We adapt to each other and to space, occupying spaces that we don’t usually pay much attention to. We fill spaces with our bodies and we practice coexistence by cooperating with one another. We are part of a group; as varied and different individuals, we make up a whole that needs each one of us.

We looked for different ways to interact with our environment and classmates. How is the classroom set up? Is it for functionality? Does it lead to a better functioning of the class? How does the setup of the class condition how we move and interact? Beyond functionality, could we make different layouts of the space? What happens when the chair is on the desk, or if instead of sitting on a chair, we sat on the desk and held the chair? What would happen if we each got on to our desk and then all tried to get on one desk? In each of these situations, how are we relating to one another? We set up fun, creative dynamics that required cooperation and coordination, and worked together in unusual situations that transform the everyday routine of the class.

Maider Lopez explained the project:

“We rethought and experimented with how we sit in class and how that affects the way we interact and learn in the classroom. We changed its distribution by arranging the tables one by one, then two by two, and four by four, and then all together, creating a single table for the whole group. With each new configuration, we did different activities and saw how that affected the type of work we do and how we interact.

We filled spaces with our bodies. We changed the everyday routine of the class and became aware of our scale and our relationship to our surroundings. We adapted to one another by occupying spaces we normally don’t pay attention to, through cooperation and working all together.”

Maxux Eceiza:

“This has been a very interesting experience for me. I found that the exercises were very enriching for the students. It has been very beneficial to them to understand the concept of space and increase their awareness of their own bodies.”

One student explained the experience:

“Three of us got into a closet and filled the whole space with our bodies. We had to mold our bodies together in order to completely fill the space. And we did the same thing in other places: in the stairways, on the basketball court, and in the goal posts of the soccer field. We had a very good time.”