Intervencion específica espacio doble

Apolonia Sustersiç and Carme Nogueira,

Doble espacio, CGAC; 2007

in the context of the Apolonija Sustersic´s project "Left For Tomorrow"

 

 

A contemporary art centre is, traditionally, an aseptic space designed for the contemplation of pieces of art, a white cube in which to display them out of context, removed from the rest of the objects found in daily life.  When Apolonija Sustersic and Carme Nogueira began working on a project for the CGAC (Galician Centre for Contemporary Art), their starting point was an intervention at the Doble Espacio, which literally consists of a white cube that stands physically at the heart of the space. When he designed this room, the Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza proposed a raised, inaccessible corridor, as a designer’s gesture with a purely aesthetic purpose. Nogueira and Sustersic have set out, through the building of a new architecture, to reconfigure the use for which the space was planned: they have created an intermediate floor which transforms the place into a node of relational exchange.  Their specific intervention consists of a platform which functions as a means of communication with the ground floor and as a research and reading space. The lower space is a place for work, for seminars, workshops and lectures. The hitherto impassable walkway has regained its function by being transformed into a way out of the building, with a bench-vantage point from which the art centre opens out onto the Bonaval park: the landscape, which had always been there as a representation, visible only through an inaccessible doorway, can now be enjoyed from the inside.  With the possibility of new paths through the building, and with a multipurpose social space where previously there was an exhibition room, this long-term intervention allows for the questioning of the asepsis of the white cube, which has been reprogrammed in order to generate expansive effects throughout the museum. The building materials –form timber and a scaffolding structure– suggest a collective use, as well as encouraging an open programme, which is constantly mutating, thus turning the centre itself into a genuine think tank for the carrying out of activities, where the most important thing is exchange, the neutralization of hierarchies and the possibility of new forms of relationships.

 

Manuel Segade

This intervention was made in the context of Apolonija Sustersic´s project, "Left For Tomorrow", a project around cultural politics and their role in the grouth and planning of cities. In this account, the specific intervention deals with the same confrontation. The space was planned as a platform to present documents, to celebrate a seminar and other activities related to the project.