Alberto Campo Baeza Show, MAXXI Exhibition, Architettura Roma
MAXXI Rome Exhibition – Alberto Campo Baeza
MAXXI Exhibition Rome, Italy
7 Sep 2011
CAMPO BAEZA. THE CREATION TREE
MAXXI Rome Event
English text (scroll down for Castellano):
Curator: Manuel Blanco
MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo
INAUGURATION: 8 Sep 2011, 7:00 pm
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC: 9 Sep – 30 Oct 2011
www.fondazionemaxxi.it
A large tree, whose leaves are drawings, a pond from which photos of projects arise, a large installation which recreates the mental landscape of Alberto Campo Baeza: this is CAMPO BAEZA. THE CREATION TREE, the third of the monographic exhibitions of NATURE, the series of four monographic installations in which MAXXI Architettura explores different interpretations of contemporary architectural investigation.
image from Alberto Campo Baeza
Co produced by MAXXI Architettura and Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) with the special collaboration of TOTO GALLERY MA of Tokyo, the show, dedicated to the work of one of the masters of Spanish architecture, is curated and designed by Manuel Blanco. Alberto Campo Baeza believes in architecture as built idea, he believes that its main components are gravity, which constructs space, and light, which constructs time.
He is one of the purest and most radical of Spanish architects, who is able to construct the space of his works with natural light, which at the same time changes them constantly. The way Campo Baeza builds situates man in the center of nature, offering him at one and the same time a refuge and a belvedere, a lookout point over the surrounding landscape. His buildings are constructions of great intensity and are purely essential; nothing is superfluous and nothing is lacking in them, they are spaces in which time expands.
In the words of Margherita Guccione, director of MAXXI Architettura, “the third installation of the series Nature proposes a variation on the theme, leaving to the curator the staging of the work of Alberto Campo Baeza. The metaphor of the tree and the author’s words make us aware of the harmony between the natural landscape and the architectural construction, in which the Spanish architect’s works succeed in dematerializing, fluctuating, overcoming gravity and entering into play with nature’s own rhythms.”
“Alberto Campo Baeza is one of the purest and most radical of Spanish architects – says Manuel Blanco, curator of the show. Natural light is the material with which he constructs the spaces of his works. His works are built ideas. He creates powerful archetypal images, icons of contemporary architecture. In this exhibition, I have wanted to analyze his creative process, unveiling the architect’s intimacy and his language, what makes Campo Baeza, building more with less, one of the greatest masters of contemporary architecture.
Spanning twenty years of Campo Baeza’s work (from his 1988 Casa Turégano to current projects in 2011), the exhibition is organized around the large central tree and analyzes the great architect’s creative process, uncovering its most intimate dimension and its language.
Like all of the projects selected for NATURE, this one dedicated to Alberto Campo Baeza with its spirit of poetic narrative, reflects on man’s natural tendency to think about a “recreated” nature.
NATURE is a program conceived by Pippo Ciorra, senior curator of MAXXI Architecture, to establish a dialogue between the museum and some of the most interesting figures in contemporary Italian and international architecture.
An exhibition in “four strokes”, it calls on architects to address a single theme and to confront the space of the museum. In the individual installations, the architects, and in this exceptional case the curator, construct a specific space capable of representing the meaning of and the relationship to the theme NATURE, with one or more projects reflecting this on display.
NATURE has been chosen not only because it is a particularly relevant concept these days, but also because it arises as an ideal least common denominator for the four authors (Francesco Venezia, West 8, Alberto Campo Baeza and UN Studio) who are wholly committed to the exploration of the relationship between the natural and the artificial.
The last stage of NATURE will feature the UN Studio of Amsterdam– Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos – magnificent exponents of a tendency that moves with care along the subtle margin between nature, technology and science.
On the occasion of the opening, Alberto Campo Baeza will give a talk about his work in the museum auditorium (Thursday, September 8, at 8:30 pm- open to the public, limited to available seating).
Alberto Campo Baeza
Alberto Campo Baeza, born in Valladolid, he has lived in Madrid since he began his studies in Architecture. A disciple of Alejandro de la Sota, he is the most senior full professor at the Design Department of ETSAM. He has taught at the ETH of Zurich, the EPFL of Lausanne, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, the BAUHAUS of Weimar and at KANSAS State University.
He has carried out projects around the world and this year will begin to build the MIA, the Museum of Italian Art in New York. His most famous book, LA IDEA CONSTRUIDA, THE BUILT IDEA, has been published in more than twenty editions. His designs and projects have been exhibited at the CROWN HALL by Mies Van der Rohe, at the IIT of Chicago, at the Urban Center of New York and at the Basilica Palladiana in Vicenza.
Manuel Blanco
Manuel Blanco, member of the ICAM, International Confederation of Architectural Museums, is an architect, exhibition curator and designer, and full professor at the ETSAM UPM of Madrid.
In 2006 he organized the exhibition España [f.] Nosotras, las Ciudades [Spain: We, the Cities] as Curator of the Spanish Pavilion at the X Biennale di Architettura of Venice. He has also organized and curated several exhibitions dedicated to the work of Alberto Campo Baeza, Santiago Calatrava and Peter Eisenman, which have been shown around the world.
In 2007, Manuel Blanco was named the first director of Spain’s National Museum of Architecture and Urbanism. This year he presented in Moscow the show Una ciudad llamada España [A City Called Spain], about the most outstanding proposals in Spanish architecture over the past ten years.
MAXXI Rome Exhibitions – Architects
Francesco Venezia: 24 Feb – 1 May 2011
West 8: 20 May – 21 Aug 2011
Alberto Campo Baeza: 9 Sep – 30 Oct 2011
UNStudio: Mar – May 2012
Maxxi Rome
photo : Roland Halbe
Contact Maxxi Roma: 06 3996 7350
Location: Via Guido Reni, 4A, 00196 Roma, Italia
MAXXI Roma Event
‘Y1/CITYVISION independent architecture stuff’
Curated by Francesco Lipari and Vanessa Todaro (OFL architecture), will be held on September 16th, 2011 at the MAXXI. Architect Joshua Prince Ramus (REX architects), just awarded as one of the five greatest architects under 50 in the world, will hold a main lecture. Presentation of the CityVision magazine Special issue 4 and award ceremony of Venice CityVision International Competition.
Rome Buildings – Selection
Ara Pacis Museum
Richard Meier Architects
Ara Pacis Museum Rome
Museum of Contemporary Art Rome
ODBC
Museum of Contemporary Art Rome
British Embassy
Basil Spence
British Embassy building
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