Lara Almarcegui / Spanish Pavilion, Venice Art Biennale 2013

At the 55th Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Spain is represented by Lara Almarcegui, an artist who’s work often deals with urban wastelands and modern ruins. For the Spanish Pavilion, she conceived an installation that refers to the architecture and construction of the building that was constructed by Javier de Luque in 1922. Lara Almarcegui fills the pavilion’s spaces with mountains of different materials such as brick, concrete, cement, and glass: the same type and quantity of construction materials used by workers to construct the pavilion in the early 20th century.

Lara Almarcegui was born in Zaragoza, Spain. Almarcegui studied Fine Arts at the University of Cuenca and at De Ateliers in Amsterdam. She lives and works in Rotterdam. Solo exhibitions include MUSAC, León (2013); CA2M, Madrid (2012); Künstlerhaus, Bremen (2012); the Secession, Vienna, and Ludlow 38, New York (2010); Gallery Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam (2008); the Málaga Centre of Contemporary Art, Málaga (2007); the FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon (2004); and INDEX, Stockholm (2003).

Lara Almarcegui. Spanish Pavilion at the 55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Professional Preview, May 30, 2013.

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From the press release:

Lara Almarcegui will represent Spain at the 55th International Art Exhibition- la Biennale di Venezia with an impressive installation in the Spanish Pavilion, which includes a research project on the island of Sacca San Mattia in Murano.

The artwork of Lara Almarcegui (Zaragoza, 1972) stems from a heightened awareness of the city, using its wastelands and buildings to reflect on the evolution of the urbis itself and the elements that comprise it. With engaged projects such as her guides to modern ruins and urban wastelands or her rubble mountains, Almarcegui has taken her practice to capital cities like London, Beirut and Vienna and has participated in major international contemporary art events such as Manifesta 9 (2012) and the São Paulo Biennial (2006).

Under the curatorial guidance of Octavio Zaya, Almarcegui will bring two related projects to the 55th International Art Exhibition-la Biennale di Venezia-the highlight of the art world calendar-that continue in the same line as her previous works. One tackles the physical space of the Spanish Pavilion in the Giardini, while the other explores an empty plot of land beside the island of Murano.

In the pavilion, a large sculpture installation interacts with the architecture of the building constructed by Javier de Luque in 1922, occupying the entire interior. Construction Materials of the Spanish Pavilion consists of mounds of different construction materials, of the same type and quantity used by workers to construct this very building in the early 20th century.

The installation revolves around a huge mountain of cement rubble, roofing tiles and bricks smashed to gravel which occupies the central room, making it virtually impossible to enter this space directly. Other lesser mounds, each of a different material (sawdust, glass and a blend of iron slag and ashes), will be located in the side rooms, which visitors will be able to walk through and so circle around the large central mound.

With regard to her project, Almarcegui explains, “The materials are the rubble from demolitions which, after being recycled, have been transformed into gravel by means of the treatment process currently used in Venice.”

Meanwhile, in Murano Almarcegui has also devised A Guide to Sacca San Mattia, the Abandoned Island of Murano, Venice, a research project that focuses on the Sacca San Mattia, an artificial island formed by the waste deposits of Murano’s glassmaking industry. The project is actually a study of an empty plot on that island, how it was formed, the site’s current geological and environmental conditions, the projects that have been planned for this plot and the reasons why none have come to fruition.

In connection with this project, Almarcegui reveals that “My preliminary research consisted in talking to Venetian city planners and architects who told me about their future plans, which allowed me to locate the wastelands and empty plots that would be affected by those transformations. I visited those areas in order to choose the one I thought was most significant.” She adds, “The Sacca San Mattia seemed like the most suitable wasteland in the area of Venice because of its odd, complex configuration: a piece of land formed by layers of waste produced by the glass and construction industries.” Indeed, the Sacca is an abandoned tip created between 1930 and 1950 by the repeated dumping of rubble and dredging of the lagoon. This undeveloped plot with a surface area of 26 hectares is the largest piece of available empty land in Venice, which has made it the subject of countless speculation initiatives, such as the controversial idea of digging a railway tunnel under the lagoon to link the city with its airport, with a station located in this area.

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