Sara Santana

Una Lectura compartida is a mixed research and illustration project that seeks to document self-managed library initiatives in the city of Madrid. Community libraries that have sprung up from activism, neighbourhood action or the sharing of books. In her research, Sara Santana proposes “reading encounters”  with their users and facilitators. In these encounters, which take the shape of conversations, walks and readings, she aims to generate a connection between the books that are shared and the ways in which they are shared. For her, it is an attempt to narrate libraries through the shared exploration of their collections. 

Sara Santana will then work with the material she gathers during the encounters, material she will use to create calligrams, pictures made up of written words that compile the texts that are read and illustrate the history of these initiatives. Using rewriting and drawing, Sara seeks to rekindle the work of the medieval copyist as a way to tell stories based on the words of others. 

BIO

Sara Santana has a degree in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid and a master’s degree in Applied Arts and Design from the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam. In her work, she explores the idea of a shared library as a flexible and participatory space, in which, as a reader, she can simultaneously take on the roles of author, mediator and audience. In 2022, she received the Generations Award for her project Revelation:: Beatus of Amsterdam and also the support of the AFK for her project Lecturas Bífidas (Forked Readings), in collaboration with Mariana Jurado Rico, Margaux Koch Goei and María París Borda. She is currently a recipient of a Mondriaan Fund Arts Grant and, together with Dani Andrés, a resident at Radio Relativa.