Barcelona Arts Summer School: two weeks of chaotic creativity

This July, the Barcelona Arts Summer School (BASS) welcomed 150 emerging artists from nearly 30 countries to the heart of Catalonia for two weeks of creative experimentation, collaboration, and chaos. Hosted in iconic venues like Montjuïc Castle and Barcelona’s Design Hub, BASS brought together interdisciplinary teams to tackle social issues through performance, technology, and art.

Fifty students from six IN.TUNE partner universities took part, using this vibrant artistic lab not just to push their personal boundaries, but to contribute to a broader conversation: how interdisciplinary artistic pedagogy can fuel curricular innovation in the alliance and across Europe’s arts institutions. For IN.TUNE, BASS wasn’t just a summer school — it was a living prototype of the alliance’s evolving vision. Have a look at the impressions from our students.

Written by Alex Musat, student from the National University of Music Bucharest
Photo credit: Alex Musat and members of the ”AVATAR” team 

For two weeks, I woke up to a view that most football fans would envy—Camp Nou stretched out right outside my window. The funny thing is, I’m not even a football fan. When I first walked into my room, I had no idea what I was looking at. My reason for being there had nothing to do with the game. I was one of 150 students and young professionals, aged between 20 and 30, who had come together from nearly 30 countries for something completely different: the very first edition of the Barcelona Arts Summer School, or BASS.

 Each of the ten teams of roughly 15 people was handed a theme to explore—issues like mental health, corruption, and even gentrification, which is a concerning problem in Barcelona at the moment. The challenge didn’t stop there. Guided by a mentor and a producer, we had to bring these themes to life using technologies like video mapping, experimental music, and AI. Every team also received a “trigger”—a strange prompt to spark creativity. Ours was “that which is not seen.” Another team? They got the legendary Monty Python sketch, The Ministry of Silly Walks. We all had less than 10 days to bring our performances to life, and we were all encouraged to step outside our comfort zones. 

“Stepping outside the box” must be the unofficial slogan of BASS, because everybody explored multiple ways of artistic expression. Film makers danced, musicians edited videos, and actors sang. The legendary Montjuic Castle, D-Hub (Barcelona’s Design Museum), the city’s water tower and the former La Model prison served as some of  the workspaces for the teams. 

“I left for this summer camp with a lot of curiosity, enthusiasm, and a bit of uncertainty — which is natural when you don't know what to expect — but that was exactly part of the charm. After the two weeks spent there, I can say that, besides the memories created together with my fellow participants and the information I gained from the workshops, I also formed strong bonds with my team — a sort of home for two weeks, you could say”, said Denisa Sava, a year 4 student of pop music composition at the National University of Music in Bucharest. 

Her colleague, Maria, added: 

“BASS was an enriching experience and a valuable opportunity to meet creative minds from all around the world. We worked in teams, sharing insight from our different areas of expertise, and managed to create a coherent artistic project despite our different backgrounds. The workshops were entertaining and vibrant, while avoiding being overly specific. As an artist, I considered BASS a chance to explore, to play, to meet like-minded individuals and to test my creative limits”. 

Maria’s feelings were reciprocated by her fellow pop music composition friend, Gabriela: 

”For me, BASS was a home built from incredible and unexpectedly genuine human connections between people who all had one thing in common: their passion for art. This experience pulled me away from the constant rush of our lives and sent me back to the roots of our purpose as artists, as creators, which is to feel, to express and to create something meaningful for us in the first place, while also enjoying the process”.

Working with my assigned team was a wonderful experience. We designed a performance where we blindfolded the audience, then exposed them to a Leos Janacek piano piece being slowly “destroyed” using a prepared piano, modified drums and vocal effects. We told them they could take the blindfold off at any time. Some of them never did! One of our teammates, Andrada, trained an AI model using the 150 faces of all BASS participants. During the performance, webcams positioned throughout the auditorium scanned the audience and projected live facial captures onto the big screen, each enclosed in a square labeled with the person’s name. With the help of our mentor, Mani Martinez, we also used AI to create and project an alternate history video, one in which Rosa Parks never has to give up her bus seat, and in which Princess Diana survives her crash. I also have to thank Mani and Anna for their wonderful guidance and problem solving skills. You guys rock!

Do I hate dancing? Yes. Did I dance anyway? Also yes.

During one of our workshops we created a choreography where we crawled on all fours and barked like dogs. Was it embarrassing? Yes. Was it liberating? Also yes!

This is what I wrote on a piece of paper during a train-of-thought writing session guided by choreographer Sol Pico: “I feel like society forces me to be successful and I don’t even know what success means anymore”.

”What is an achievement anyway?” In this case, I feel like my achievement was stepping  out of my comfort zone and experiencing the arts through the eyes of directors, actors and visual artists. There were laughs, there was chaos, unexpected issues, cancellations and even a weird virus that left dozens of people with a sore throat for days. However, I strongly believe that the first edition of BASS was a great experience and I wish that next year’s event is even better! Also, here’s a mandatory selfie in front of the iconic Venetian Towers, the site of Freddie Mercury’s final concert appearance (I had to do it!).

Find out more about BASS here.

Watch all the performances here.