Four general strategies were devised and implemented. A brief description (see below) helps to introduce the reader to the theoretical-methodological system on which the strategies were based. These were further enriched and developed during the course of community action, and guided and at the same time became Rodrí­guez’s artistic praxis.

The first strategy, La cama (The Bed, 2001) involved placing a bed —following the initiative of the art collective Grupo Provisional, made up of Juan Carlos Rodrí­guez, Félix Suazo, Domingo de Lucí­a y David Palacios— in two different settings: first in the community center, then at the main entrance of the hospital that provides the community’s health-care services. The bed was placed at the community center for a day with an initial series of symbolic accessories (religious images, cards, and flowers above the headboard, a home library with health-care and self-improvement books at the foot of the bed, and board games on either side) designed to encourage interaction with the public. These led to discussions, among other things, on the meaning of the objects placed around the bed and the suggestions some people made to change them, in keeping with their beliefs on religion, health, etc. Once patients at the hospital and their next of kin had overcome their initial surprise and following an improvised explanation by one of the artists, a spontaneous dialogue sprang up on issues regarding beds and the health services provided by the hospital. This helped to establish a link with the images and ideas stemming from the bed during its stay in the barrio.

In the second approach, Las Pizarras (The Blackboards, 2001), eight blackboards were placed in public places around the neighborhood to encourage people to write comments on health. Seen from the perspective of art, the boards —like the bed—acted as “object-processes” designed to link the field of art to psycho-social issues in community life, particularly those involving health. Art was important given its interest in metaphors and symbols in addition to its role as a critical reference to previous artistic work, such as Beuys’s blackboards, to mention but one)

El torneo (The Tournament, 2001), or the rubber ball game —the third approach—was based on a popular game that follows the structure and rules of baseball, including its division into innings, except the ball is batted with one’s hand and the rules are adapted to the surrounding terrain. The young people of the barrio organized three teams, the public was invited to watch the tournament at a little neighborhood plaza. Placed on the surrounding balconies and other visible sites were posters with the words cure, healer, treatment, to cure, curatorship, curing, and another with the phrase

The fourth strategy was the establishment of Encuentros creativos (Creative encounters) among children and youth, which were held once a week for a year and a half and featured facilitators in painting, drawing, narrative, puppets, scale modeling, dance, theatre, etc. An important part of the Encounters was preparing and staging a play, La salud en pelotas (Naked Health, 2002). The initial improvisations of the participants in the encounters led to the collective writing of a script that approached health as a symbolic territory in which different discourses coexist, which served as the basis for a play that resorted to a variety of forms of expression to encourage the audience to take a different view on the subject.