“Uninhabited” Pavilion
Activism, Art and Architecture
The Uninhabited Pavilion is the territorial manifestation of the Transmedia “Uninhabited” project. The installation was developed at the end of 2012 by República Portátil (Portable Republic, in English); a creative company formed by architects and designers along with the cinematographic production agency Terkofilms. Uninhabited was born as a story as well as a short film, focused on the fantasy genre. It is the story of an empty city in ruins that proposes an
imaginary of the territory in crisis that takes place in the city of Concepcion. This, further leads into transmedia projects in order to make the story go through several media and platforms. Thus, it uses Cinema, Architecture and Narrative which involves, printing a book, setting a web site, an art gallery exhibition and a temporary installation in the centre of the city. It is precisely this last event that generates the Uninhabited Pavilion’s onset, a temporary 8X8X8 ms. building that aimed at hosting 7 days of activities related to the broadcasting and territorial positioning of the project.
The Pavilion, settled at the city centre between the Courthouse and retail shopping buildings, works like a big black box, capable of accommodating up to 50 people. Upstairs, a rooftop allows the view of the main square, which is characterized by both, a high flow of people during the day and low intensity of use at night.
Pedestrians are submerged in an audio-visual environment, caught by the space where the short film “Uninhabited” is displayed. This film shows images of Concepción city; empty, uninhabited, swept by nature. These are frantic fragments that show, in a puzzle of six screens, short pieces of the film, hoping viewers become a conscious party of such futuristic atmosphere.
The Pavilion’s rooftop is an open–sky courtyard at eight meters high, kitted out to rest and sleep, work and get together. During day time, it is a working laboratory, and at night its ladders are lifted to become separated from the public ground to celebrate parties, allow relaxation and offer a brand new place for social meetings in the city. From this rather private space, events occurring inside the Pavilion are broadcasted by reporting and interacting through social networks; an open house in the city, streaming worldwide, the use of the public space.
As for its temporal dimension, the project was developed on grounds such as: lightness, flexibility and efficiency regarding implementation of its comprising elements. Such elements were to allow quick installation and dismantling, as well as moving feasibility and the chance to build the volume using basic tools and as little machinery as possible, considering time economy in the whole process. Thus, in the construction stage, we used scaffoldings which would become the main structure, completely modular and detachable. On that frame, we put a fabric weave as the inner and outer skin, as well. Furthermore, through a wooden web made of recycled pallets, we developed the process of creating urban furniture which was used to inhabit the Pavilion’s rooftop during the seven days of the occupation.
This platform does not aim at a specific productive, commercial, nor serviceable use. It is, indeed, a controlled artful experiment that follows criteria from our own time, emission and reception of information, activism as well as public space enhancement. Through encounter and cooperative work, we propose to reflect on artistic practices and territorial comprehension, intervention as well as appropriation. This project is oriented to viewers who are eager for information; those who will, not only enter and observe, but simultaneously, inhabit such physical and virtual area, recording and displaying through their portable devices what is happening in this temporary public space, crossed by digital flows.
View Original