public interventions

Constructing a space, a home in a designated place with discarted materials found on the streets of an underdeveloped metropolis is a process we term favela, casa de carton, squatter camp, paraga and baraka.
It can happen everywhere, it’s a kind of micro unofficial system living aside the official one. Different life styles.

A small pavillon, a favela is positioned anonymously on the site of the Biennale, close to the German and the Canadian pavillon. Made from the wasted materials of the Biennale it stands there seeming natural and does not resemble an artpiece.

It is an open space waiting to be discovered, a small house, an invitation. June 2003

During the 50th Biennale of Venice, Dreams and Conflicts, the Dictatorship of the Viewer – and for the whole of the following year – a small illegal and peripheral pavilion existed within the gardens of the Biennale. The favela pavilion, located between the Canadian and German pavilions, was opened to the public on June 12 2003. It was built on Sunday June 8 using the scrap materials generated from the setting up of the national pavilions in the gardens of the Biennale, without any permit or contact with the organizers of the exhibition, just as the favelas of the Third World. The project which never aimed at drawing attention, remained peripheral from the get-go and transformed itself into a space where ideas, projects, collaborations, dreams, conflicts and, most of all, questions were generated. The operation never attempted to answer these questions which it nurtured, rather the intention was to testify, through its presence, their pertinence. The favela pavilion was, thus, an open process, shaped by the various sensibilities of its creators and visitors. It enriched itself –and grew – thanks to the discussions it generated, developing creatively and informally just as the favelas. The fact that no type of permit was issued on the part of the Biennale of Venice reproduced the actual sensations of angst and vulnerability which is experienced as a persistent disturbance by the inhabitants of the “barrios” in the suburbs of the metropolises of underdeveloped nations creating the conditions risk and crisis in which ideas find an optimal humus for growth. Many things occurred within the pavilion, many guests left their contact information in order to receive information on the development of the project; an exhibition took place, an article was published in a local newspaper, there was contact with Francesco Bonami, Curator of Biennale and finally a person wound up occupying it. Spontaneously and randomly, artists, curators, critics and visitors grouped around the favela pavilion. Finally the favela pavilion was dismantled by the organizers of the 9th International Architecture Exhibition on August 6 2004.

Urban (Play) Traces is the name given to a series of public interventions carried out in different places, assuming specific meaning depending on the context. The action consists in selecting a space of symbolic relevance and drawing chalk outlines, just as the police do around homicide victims. The intervention, while presenting itself as a social critique, also assumes playful connotations through the relationship that is established between the drawer and the person acting as a model, finalized in a drawing with visual appeal.