Machines for Living – Flamenco and Architecture in the Occupation and Vacating of Spaces

View of “Máquinas de vivir. Flamenco y arquitectura en la ocupación y desocupación de espacios” (Machines for Living: Flamenco and Architecture in the Occupation and Vacating of Spaces), 2018. Photo: Pep Herrero.

23 February – 20 April 2018

Co-production between La Virreina Centre de la Imatge and Centro Cibeles de Cultura y Ciudadanía de Madrid

Curated by Pedro G. Romero, María García Ruiz and Valentín Roma

Jumping off from Lorca’s application of Le Corbusier’s concept of ‘a machine for living’ to the homes of the Flamenco players he was staying with, this exhibition took interest in the difference between ‘living’ and ‘living in’, presenting dances, pieces of music, actions, set designs, paintings, films, photos and documents, to attempt to piece together ‘a political mode of dwelling in the world’.

Álvaro Siza (1933), Sketch, Evora, Malgueira. DMC 2512.6.

Siza’s sketchbooks illustrate the concern for humanity in his design, lonely figures occupy those rare pages without any buildings. Rodrigo Lino Gaspar wrote for Drawing Matter about the curious almost-poem also found within this series of pages. Playing with the overlap between poems within architecture and architectural notes within poetic oevres this exhibition re-examined the forces that shape how we live.

Álvaro Siza (1933), Sketchbook, Evora, Malagueira, 1977. DMC 2512.25 .

Read the exhibition programme here.