intra-accions

intra-accions is a co-creation proposal in the arts, community health and education field, jointly promoted by CAP Poblenou, the Maria Espinalt Institute and the La Escocesa creative factory. The first phase was carried out in 2023 with third-year secondary school students from the Maria Espinalt Institute, and will continue until 2025 with some of the same group of students who were in their first year of sixth form, delving deeper into the processes that were started.

The term intra-accions is inspired by Karen Barad's philosophical notion of ‘intra-action’, which refers to ‘doing with’ the other, promoting relational co-creation from which phenomena and subjects emerge. The project articulates active collaboration between the fields of art, health and education, with methodologies that integrate aesthetic, clinical and pedagogical dynamics. The central objective was to detect and address adolescent malaise through critical, careful and innovative artistic mediation, inspired by traditions such as anti-psychiatry, community health, critical pedagogy and artivism.

During the first phase, an approach to the emotional state of young people was made through the artistic mediation ‘Yo-mundo. Una geografía psicoemocional compartida’ (Me-world. A shared psycho-emotional geography), designed by researcher and project coordinator Beatriz Regueira, and activated together with community emotional wellbeing expert Itziar Toro, family doctor Montse Verdú and secondary school teacher Marta Caño, with artistic mediation by artists from La Escocesa Sara Manubens, Alba García, Stefania Lusini, María Roy, illustrator Tinta Fina, who created the visual report of the mediation, as well as guidance from health and school nurse Alicia Jiménez from EAP Poblenou and teachers from the Maria Espinalt Institute.

Subsequently, all the researchers jointly analysed the data and observations from the exploration, giving rise, among other things, to the idea of a refuge as a space for well-being.

In the second phase of the project, an emotional and ecological refuge was co-designed with the students within the Institute, where three possible proposals were worked on with different groups of artists (Takk, Roger Serret, Colectivo Punt 6). Each group presented a proposal resulting from the workshops with the students. The chosen proposal was agreed upon with the students, mediating debate among all workshop participants, and the refuge was finally built at the Maria Espinalt Secondary School according to the proposal by the Punt 6 Collective.

The first activation of the refuge has been designed by Beatriz Regueira, who has created the ‘Relaxation, Contact and Presence Kit’. This kit will be available to teachers and students at the school as a tool to use in the refuges, helping them to become aware of sensations and emotions through meditation and contact with relational objects.

intra-accions will remain active, maintaining the shelters within the school to allow for future activations. These will aim to address the issues identified during the initial exploration, avoiding medicalisation and promoting an artistic and community-based response that promotes the emotional well-being of young people.

Photos of the first phase of the project:

Photos by Caterina Botelho

Photos of the second phase of the project:

Organise and coordinate: