In the Spanish Pavilion at the 2013 Biennale
Lara Almarcegui represents spain at the 55th international art exhibition in venice. a present-day archeologist, her practice is derived from a heightened awareness of the city, investigating urban transformation, and the social, economic and political networks which effect it. in particular, she focuses on studying the often overlooked elements which make up a place–the modern ruins and urban wastelands which comprise them;she uncovers relationships between the sites she excavates and investigates with their past, and evaluates their possible future.
Curated by octavio zaya, almarcegui’s work for the spanish pavilion is composed of two parts. her installation at the giardini venue, speaks directly to the 1922 building constructed by javier de luque; it is an intervention which occupies its entire interior. one is met by overwhelming, towering mountains of various construction materials–cement rubble, roofing tiles and bricks smashed to gravel–paralleling the type and quantity used by workers to construct the venue, making it virtually impossible for one to enter directly. throughout the other side rooms, smaller, less hefty mounds, are found each divided according to material (sawdust, glass and a blend of iron slag and ashes).
‘The materials are the rubble from demolitions, after being recycled, have been transformed into gravel by means of the treatment process currently used in venice,’ says the artist. (designboom)
In the Spanish Pavilion at the 2013 Biennale
Lara Almarcegui represents spain at the 55th international art exhibition in venice. a present-day archeologist, her practice is derived from a heightened awareness of the city, investigating urban transformation, and the social, economic and political networks which effect it. in particular, she focuses on studying the often overlooked elements which make up a place–the modern ruins and urban wastelands which comprise them;she uncovers relationships between the sites she excavates and investigates with their past, and evaluates their possible future.
Curated by octavio zaya, almarcegui’s work for the spanish pavilion is composed of two parts. her installation at the giardini venue, speaks directly to the 1922 building constructed by javier de luque; it is an intervention which occupies its entire interior. one is met by overwhelming, towering mountains of various construction materials–cement rubble, roofing tiles and bricks smashed to gravel–paralleling the type and quantity used by workers to construct the venue, making it virtually impossible for one to enter directly. throughout the other side rooms, smaller, less hefty mounds, are found each divided according to material (sawdust, glass and a blend of iron slag and ashes).
‘The materials are the rubble from demolitions, after being recycled, have been transformed into gravel by means of the treatment process currently used in venice,’ says the artist. (designboom)