Basurama is a collective that has been working in the field of cultural research, production and management since 2001, focusing its studies and work on industrial production processes and the generation of waste they frame towards creative possibilities.
Founded in Madrid’s School of Architecture, Basurama has been evolving and morphing throughout its existence. It seeks to study the phenomena implicit in the mass production of both real and virtual waste in a consumer society, while proposing new approaches designed to foster reflections and attitudes. Basurama attempts to detect cracks within the process of production and consumption that not only raise questions on the way we use resources, but also on the way we think and work and the way we perceive our possibilities.
Basurama seeks to find residuals where one would not expect to find it and to study garbage in all its forms. Over time Basurama has become a multidisciplinary event involving a multiplicity of activities but featuring a common approach. These activities include all manner of workshops, conversations, concerts, screenings, competitions and publications. Their aim is also to provide a platform for social groups that play very different roles in society but are nevertheless not far removed from each other, so that they can come into contact and work together. Basurama has conducted projects in Brussels (Belgium), San Sebastián (Spain), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Linz (Austria), Caracas (Venezuela), Palma de Mallorca (Spain), South Korea, Mexico City, Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), Buenos Aires (Argentina) and is based in Madrid.
In this interview the artist and writer Beatriz Valls talks with Basurama about the group’s relationship between art and architecture as well as the community spaces they hope to work in and generate.