Industrial-Drum Columns to Grace the Barcelona Pavilion
John Hill, Silvia Pujalte Toledo
18. March 2016
“I don’t want to change the world. I only want to express it” by Luis Martínez Santa-María (Image courtesy of Fundació Mies van der Rohe)
Luis Martínez Santa-María of Madrid has won the Fundació Mies van der Rohe's "Fear of Columns" competition with "I don't want to change the world. I only want to express it." His winning design will be realized as a temporary installation this summer.
The winning proposal is an ephemeral installation of ten columns formed by stacked steel drums drained of their their chemicals and welded to each other. Luis Martínez Santa-María described the drums as "art objects" divorced from their previous functions yet exhibiting them through surface stains.
The "Fear of Columns" competition asked entrants to recreate the Ionic columns of Josep Puig i Cadafalch that were built adjacent to Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion on the occasion of the International Exhibition of 1929. The Fundació Mies van der Rohe received 181 proposals from countries including Japan, Poland, Italy, Romania, USA, France, Spain, Mexico, Brazil and Belgium. The jury (formed by Fernando Ramos Galindo, M. Escalona Clara Riera, Jordi Ros Ballesteros Anna Giralt and Julià Sala Bort Ricart) shortlisted 26 projects, and following discussions they unanimously awarded the prize to Luis Martínez Santa-María.
Per a statement from the Fundació Mies van der Rohe: "The jury particularly valued the compelling nature of the winning entry, which encapsulates the vertical component of the pre-existing columns in contrast to the horizontality of the Pavilion. The project denotes an absolutely contemporary approach marked by awareness of the environment and the need to permanently reutilise resources. At the same time, it expresses the provisional character of an ephemeral installation temporarily affixed to the Pavilion."
On 1 June 2016, the 30-year anniversary of the Pavilion’s reconstruction, the 15,000-Euro temporary installation will be unveiled in a public ceremony, displayed next to Mies's Barcelona Pavilion for up to five months.
“I don’t want to change the world. I only want to express it” by Luis Martínez Santa-María (Image courtesy of Fundació Mies van der Rohe)
The jury also awarded three runners-up:
- SECOND PRIZE: “Shades of Grey” by Amir Shouri y Fereshteh Tabe (New York, NY, USA)
- THIRD PRIZE: “Politics of the Myth” by Miguel Ángel Díaz Camacho (Getafe, Spain)
- FOURTH PRIZE: “Paper Romance” by Nicoletta Faccitondo, Margherita Valente, Andrea Salvatore, Salvatore Dentamaro, Nicola Dario Baldassare y Pasquale Cipri de Collettivo Arcipelago (Bari, Italy)