Monument UNIÓ

Monumento Uniò - NEA - www.nea.artMonument UNIÓ

Monument / participatory public art project
Inaugurated on 15 November 2025
Parc del Voluntariat, Calle del Maestro Atanasio Garcia Zapater, 46910, Benetússer, Valencia, Spain

Project promoted by the Ajuntament de Benetússer in collaboration with the Department of Sculpture, Faculty of Fine Arts, Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), coordinated and conceived by NEA.

Material: Clay, fired ceramic, structural elements.

Brief description:
Participatory public monument conceived as a symbolic response to the DANA. The work is composed of two semicircular structures evoking an open embrace, integrated with ceramic elements made by the community.

Quantitative data of the work:

  • 434 ceramic bricks made by citizens
  • 229 symbolic voids dedicated to the victims of the DANA

Technique:
Artistic ceramics / participatory production / site-specific installation

Production process:

  • Participatory workshops engaging different sectors of the population of Benetússer.
  • Hand modelling of clay bricks
  • Drying and firing in the workshops of the Faculty of Fine Arts (UPV)
  • Final installation on the monument site

Participation:
Citizens of Benetússer, children, adults, elderly people, UPV students, educational community.

Monument Uniò - NEA - www.nea.art

UNIÓ is a participatory public art project promoted by the City Council of Benetússer in collaboration with the Department of Sculpture of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Universitat Politècnica de València, based on a proposal by the artist NEA. Conceived as a response to the collective experience caused by the DANA, the project consists of the creation of a monument located in the Parc del Voluntariat in Benetússer, understood as a tribute to the victims, a recognition of volunteers, and a symbolic gesture of reconstruction for the community.

The work is based on a re-signification of clay, a material deeply linked to the Valencian ceramic tradition and which, after the disaster, also became a symbol of destruction and loss. Through its collective handling, the clay ceases to represent only trauma and is transformed into a medium for memory, care, and hope.

The monument takes the form of two semicircular structures that evoke an open embrace. Embedded in its surfaces are 434 ceramic bricks made by citizens and 229 voids that recall the victims of the DANA, creating a poetics of absence. The work is accessible and walkable, inviting interaction and collective appropriation of the space.

One of the central aspects of the project has been the development of participatory workshops. The making of the bricks took place through five meetings open to different sectors of the population. The first workshop, held on 12 September 2025 in Plaça del Molí, was specifically aimed at children. The second took place on 13 September at the Municipal Market, temporarily transforming this everyday space into a site of shared creation. The third meeting was held on 23 September at the Adult Education School, broadening participation to different profiles within the community. At the municipal level, these workshops were organised with the support and coordination of the Councillor for Culture of the Municipality of Benetússer, Engracia Arias Valera.

The Faculty of Fine Arts of the Universitat Politècnica de València also hosted a session especially dedicated to older people from Benetússer, who participated in a creation workshop and visited the UPV Sculptural Campus Museum. Finally, a fifth workshop was coordinated by professor Leonardo Gómez Haro with students from the faculty’s ceramics course.
At the academic level, the project was coordinated by professor Carmen Marcos Martínez.

All participatory workshops open to both the citizens of Benetússer and the university community were preceded by an information session organised by the Municipality of Benetússer, specifically by the Councillor for Culture, Engracia Arias Valera, in collaboration with the artist NEA. The meeting introduced the project and encouraged dialogue between participants and the project team prior to the workshops.

After their completion, the bricks were dried, fired in the kilns of the ceramics laboratory at the Faculty of Fine Arts under the supervision of teaching staff and specialized technicians, and subsequently transported to Benetússer to be incorporated into the monument. In this way, each piece preserves the physical and symbolic trace of those who participated in its creation, turning the sculpture into a collective archive of memories, experiences, and emotions.

The project is supported by a broad network of institutional, academic, and civic collaboration. However, the true protagonist is the community, whose active participation gives meaning to the monument and turns it into a material expression of solidarity, commitment, and collective reconstruction.

From a theoretical perspective, UNIÓ is inscribed within contemporary practices of participatory art, understanding art as a tool for social transformation, community building, and the exercise of the right to the city. The work is not limited to functioning as a commemorative object, but acts as a relational infrastructure capable of generating bonds, fostering shared care, and activating processes of mourning and emotional healing.

The development of the project has been made possible thanks to a network of human and institutional collaboration that constitutes, in itself, an essential part of the work.

In particular, recognition is given to the work of Engracia Arias Valera, Concejala de Cultura del Ayuntamiento de Benetússer, promoter of the project, for her commitment and for its institutional and operational coordination.

Carmen Marcos Martínez, professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the UPV and university coordinator of the project, disseminated the proposal and worked with great dedication towards its realization. Likewise, Francisco Pérez Benavent, senior laboratory technician at the faculty, contributed not only strong personal commitment but also essential technical expertise for the correct execution of the process.

Leonardo Gómez Haro, professor at the same faculty, provided ongoing guidance throughout the project and coordinated the students during the ceramics workshop. The presence, throughout the entire process, of professor María Desamparados Cubells Casares, together with professor Gómez Haro, both co-directors of the artist NEA’s doctoral program, has been constant, offering academic and personal support and accompaniment.

José Galindo Gálvez, at that time dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, supported the idea from its earliest stages and accompanied its institutional development. Likewise, the contribution of Carlos Martínez Barragán, professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts and at that time director of the Master’s Degree in Artistic Production at the BBAA of the UPV, is particularly relevant, as he was the first person to learn about the proposal and to trust in its potential.

Ana Veintimilla, artist, has been a continuous source of exchange and inspiration for the project.

At the centre of the entire process is the citizenship, which has participated with commitment, generosity, and a willingness to share memories, recollections, and hopes with the community. Their active presence has endowed the monument with meaning, symbolic depth, and collective value. Likewise, recognition is given to the contribution of the university staff as a whole and, especially, to all those who have actively participated in the creation of the monument.

All the people involved – including NEA – have taken part on a completely voluntary basis.

Monument Uniò - NEA - www.nea.art

Monument Uniò - NEA - www.nea.art

Publications and Media Coverage

Monument UNIÓ has been widely covered in institutional communications, regional press, and audiovisual media, documenting both its participatory development and its inauguration in November 2025 at the Parc del Voluntariat in Benetússer.

The coverage reflects the project’s role as a collective memorial and participatory public artwork emerging from community engagement in response to the DANA.

Institutional Publications

Press and News Coverage

Video Documentation

  • YouTube — UNIÓ. Monument participatiu en homenatge a les víctimes de la DANA i a la solidaritat ciutadana (“UNIÓ. Participatory monument in tribute to DANA victims and civic solidarity”)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWWRtzdzjvI

Site Reference

The media attention surrounding Monument Unió reflects its capacity to operate across artistic, civic, and commemorative dimensions, where participatory practice becomes a tool for collective memory and social reconstruction.

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Videoperformance, Valencia, Spain