Collective research project
Iñigo Sánchez-Fuarros (PI), Cristina Sánchez-Carretero, Laura Muñoz Encinar, et. al.
2022-2025
This ongoing research explores how Galician bandstands (palcos) serve as critical witnesses to social, cultural, and economic transformations in their local communities. While traditional bandstands hold significant symbolic importance in local festivals, many now stand in disuse. Though some heritage organizations advocate for preserving historic structures, our project takes a different approach by focusing on post-1970s bandstands—structures often dismissed in heritage discourse as examples of urban «ugliness» lacking protection-worthy value.
PALCOS examines these overlooked structures as artifacts of vernacular material culture, using them as a lens to understand the profound changes in Galicia’s festival landscapes from the late 20th century to the present. Our interdisciplinary approach combines perspectives from the materiality turn in humanities and social sciences, festival studies as devices for community production, and the transdisciplinary intersection of anthropology, contemporary archaeology, and artistic research.
Using a multidisciplinary methodology that integrates ethnography, contemporary archaeology, and artistic practice, the project aims to map and catalog palcos and campos da festa (festival grounds) throughout Galicia; analyze their morphological and functional evolution to better understand relationships with festival development and performing ensembles; problematize conventional notions of cultural heritage by focusing attention on systematically excluded objects; and develop an innovative interdisciplinary research methodology at Incipit that bridges ethnography, archaeology, and artistic research.
This research contributes to our understanding of Galician popular culture through studying local festivals in rururban environments, examining both their material aspects and symbolic significance as elements that shape social relationships and territorial belonging. By investigating these overlooked structures, we gain insight into how festival infrastructure reflects broader social and cultural transformations in contemporary Galicia.
