Monoambiente

Potrero [Improvised Playing Field]

4. noun. Arg., Bol. and Peru. Uncultivated lot of land with no constructions where children often play.

Real Academia Española

Alexandra Kehayoglou’s textile landscapes interrogate the earthly origins of the city in which we live, the traces of the past, of what the land was before the city grew on it. Her pastures, which are designed and built by hand, explore a sensory imaginary in rugs and seamless backdrops that remind us where we come from and exactly where we stand.

In this case, the pasture is cast aside to make way for an improvised play field. That foul land is understood as trace and manifestation of an overwhelming passion, one fully evidenced in its absence.

\”(…) Further and further away from our lands, less and less akin to ourselves. If even the color of our jerseys had faded with time, Sir, with so many washings, with the lands of the dirty lots where we had to go to play, Sir, we who knew so well green grass, Sir, and its scent when freshly cut. (…)\”.

Los últimos “Salileros”

Roberto Fontanarrosa

Potrero opens up an expressive family in the language of A. Kehayoglou, in which she dares to dig her hand into the ground and \”cultivate it\” in rugs that show the appeal of a landscape that no one wants but everyone longs for.

\”With the rugs, I hope to freeze a moment in order to experience it from another dimension. My idea is to toy with the linearity of time to generate a new, more sincere, point of view. For me, the rug acts as a setting for introspection. I was born and grew up surrounded by rugs; they are part of my understanding of the world. In them, I enter another scale and the earth is an island.

“This allows me to explore space in a time different from linear time, a time that I can maneuver and begin to understand. A second may last longer than a second.\”

– Baldío [Vacant Lot]

1. adj. Said of a piece of land not cultivated or used for grazing.

2. adj. Said of a piece of land that, though the property of individuals, is idle and not cultivated

3. adj. Vain, pointless or groundless.

4. adj. wandering, lost, with no purpose or trade.

Translations of the definitions of the Spanish word “baldío” found in the Real Academia Española

City

Vacant lots are pieces of land in the city abandoned due to the malfunctioning of urban metabolism. In Buenos Aires, these areas have an array of typologies: obsolete urban spaces; lots containing infrastructure; lots that encompass an entire city block and others that are just stretches within the urban grid. Linear and continuous vacant lots, called “wildlife corridors,” are apt environments for energetic exchange between the different populations of species that inhabit them.

Society

Due to a range of practices, vacant lots are by definition abandoned. Not pleasing to the eye, these lots are depositories of urban waste. When in the city, weeds grow in vacant lots; in the country, they are invaded by brush. These lots are home to a complex combination of exotic and native species that have adapted to a hostile environment; they have no commercial value whatsoever. In some places, vacant lots are turned into improvised playing fields, which gives them new meaning and use.

Ecology

When a piece of land is abandoned, whether due to a natural or anthropogenic disturbance, a process called succession begins. Primary succession entails the colonization of the land by what are considered pioneering species, that is, species with short lifecycles that adapt to extreme conditions; secondary succession begins when species with needs that can be met by this now-established ecosystem begin to settle in the land. These are often woody species with long lifecycles.

Botany

The species of plants identified in Buenos Aires include: stellaria media; cyperus rotundus; commelina erecta; digitaria sanguinalis; brachiaria platyphylla; lolium multiflorum; setaria parviflora;  eleusine indica; bowlesia incana; bromus catharticus; conyza bonariensis; paspalum dilatatum; taraxacum officinale; urtica dioica; oxalis articulata; Diplotaxis tenuifolia.

Public Space

Bulla experiments with this new material and its possible uses; it reformulates its use for future public spaces, revalorizing and changing the cultural paradigm for that which is deemed worthless or undesirable so that it can be used for building a new urban landscape.

Vacant lots have no commercial value. They do not need to be cultivated or tended. They are, simply, blotches of vegetation that grow as they adapt to specific and extreme conditions. Great potential, hidden beauty.

Bulla creates a new vision that enables the creation of a novel image of the urban landscape, a new, rich and complex materiality. A change of perspective and of generation that allows us to envision better cities in which to live

Posters

The Yuyo series of posters designed by Negro™ explores the question of figure and background, using the screen technique on 60×40 cutouts of rugs and combining colored inks with rugs from old El Espartano catalogues.

Thanks to his dark palate and unique style, typographer Ariel Di Lisio is known the world over.