The Ús Barcelona festival promotes urban art and public participation as tools for regaining unused spaces and giving them new uses and a new life.

This year, during the local festival in the Esquerra de l’Exiample neighbourhood, the Ús Barcelona is opening up the former Model prison to the public to use art, culture and popular festivities as a way of producing a collective vision of what the building should be like and what uses it should be put to in the future.

In order to generate these transformational synergies with art, public participation, social innovation, creativity and experimentation, the festival is organising a series of activities and art interventions from 2 to 7 October.

Artists taking part in this edition include Ampparito, Elisa Capdevila, Paula Bonet, Emili Eldridge, Twee Muizen, Octavi Serra and Kevin Ledo. The music section of the festival includes the likes of Jesss Hologram, O’o, African Rabbits, Bilbadino, Jokko, Museless and Nus.

The Womart meeting includes various conferences with a gender perspective to promote the presence and recognition of women artists at institutional visual arts circuits and address the history of La Model from a female point of view.

The Ús Kids section backs young children’s talent and creativity, offering them spaces where they can create and have fun.

The Jail Lab opens up a window on the past and the future of La Model, with art interventions inside the complex.

Cinema a la Galeria is a series of films being screened in the former prison and features film directors and urban thinkers who will be reflecting on ideas such as vulnerability, legality, justice and commitment.

The programme also includes a route around the Esquerra de l’Eixample neighbourhood, and the Úxperience, with the Barcelona City Lab installation to reflect on the present and the future of the city. Another feature is the Market, with works of art by illustrators, designers and artists, as well as a fair for local entities and commerce.

http://agenda500.barcelona.cat/en/detall/us-barcelona-festival-at-la-model_99400334516.html