El coleccionismo artístico como epifanía y arteterapia: autoetnografía de una colección de arte contemporáneo

Pablo de Castro Martín

doi:10.5209/arte.84448

Pablo de Castro Martín Universidad de Valladolid https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1217-3083

Keywords: art collecting, art therapy, autism, Rett syndrome, art education, heritage education

Abstract

The paper presents the possibilities of art collecting as an art therapy. Combining the autoethnographic methodology with that of the case study, from a participant observation, it describes the reasons that led to the constitution of the Pablo de Castro Collection and the subjective process through which it has become a crucial element in overcoming and coexisting with the trauma that the confirmation of the diagnosis of Rett syndrome for his daughter entailed.

A brief presentation of the relationship among collecting, art therapy and autism gives way to the explanation of the process of building the collection. Then, the turning point is identified, which made it possible to provide it with a different line from the one initially planned and which is, precisely, the one that allows the application of art therapy as the leitmotiv of its development.

After an approach to Rett syndrome, the text delves into the healing concept of the act of collecting and the re-signification of the works as a strategy for establishing links that favour the repair of grief, while new realities are constructed from them - habitat, play, education - through a process of artistic meta-creation.

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Author Biography

Pablo de Castro Martín, Universidad de Valladolid

PABLO DE CASTRO (Valladolid, 1970) has a degree in Philosophy and Letters – History of Art section – and a PhD in Educational Sciences from the University of Valladolid (UVa). He completed doctoral studies at the UVa and the Università degli Studi Ca´ Foscari di Venezia (Italy). He has obtained the extraordinary award for Bachelor's degree (1996-1997) and doctorate (2016).

He currently works as a professor in the Department of Didactics of Musical, Plastic and Corporal Expression of the University of Valladolid, in the Faculty of Education of Palencia, within the area of Artistic Education.

Between 1999 and February 2020, he taught Art History, Spanish History and Universal Contemporary History in different schools in Valladolid, a task combined with the position of Associate Professor at the UVa since 2016.

He has carried out research stays at the University of the Basque Country (San Sebastián), the Autonomous University of Yucatán (UADY / Mérida, Mexico) and the Cervantes Institute of New Delhi (India); He is a member of the network of excellence in research of the Social Sciences Red14, a member of the EDUHIPA Recognized Research Group "Historical and Heritage Education", a researcher at the Heritage Education Observatory in Spain and a member of the Federico Wattenberg Center for Vaccean Studies, where he tries to contribute an up-to-date educational look at the Vaccea culture, present at the Pintia site.

As a specialist in cultural heritage, he worked at the Hispania Nostra Foundation for heritage conservation (1999). He has designed numerous educational innovation projects in the field of heritage, some of whose results have been awarded in various competitions such as Los Nueve Secretos (Castile and León Historical Heritage Foundation), Viatores Contest (Siglo Foundation), the Vaccea Awards (University of Valladolid ) or the Valencia International Film Festival, among others, or can be seen in collaborations with institutions such as the Espacio Líquido Gallery (Gijón) or the Cervantes Institute in New Delhi.

As a plastic and visual artist, some of his works have been exhibited in different individual and collective exhibitions. He was a co-founding member of the Bocallave Association. Cultural Initiatives, from which different cultural and artistic proposals were promoted in pursuit of the decentralization of the art-system, as well as the group of teachers El Punto Rojo, which investigates and proposes new formulas for the teaching of subjects related to the field of arts in regulated teaching. The projects derived from this activity have resulted in interesting collaborations with institutions such as the Patio Herreriano Museum of Contemporary Spanish Art or the National Museum of Sculpture.

His collection of contemporary art, which uses works of art as a private code that facilitates the establishment of deep and intimate ties with his daughter Jimena, diagnosed with a highly disabling autism spectrum disease -Rett Syndrome-, has been seen in the MARTE Fair of Contemporary Art (Castellón, 2017), the Vilaseco Gallery (La Coruña, 2018) and the Barjola Museum (Gijón, 2019).

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