Exhibition 14
Letters to the Mayor ● Curated with Storefront for Art and Architecture
19/03/2016 - 21/05/2016
LETTERS TO THE MAYOR
Curatorial text by Storefront for Art and Architecture
A World Cities Project on Governance, Citizenship and Ideas
As a civic figure, the architect has the privilege and responsibility to articulate and translate the collective aspirations of society, and specifically of those not able to sit at the decision-making tables.
Throughout history, architects have engaged with this responsibility and the structures of economic, political and cultural power in different ways and with varying degrees of success. With the rise of globalization and the homogenization of the contemporary city, the role of the architect in the political arena has often been relegated to answering questions that others have asked. While designing the next economically driven cultural-iconic-touristic object, an increasing amount of both architects and with them, politicians, have forgotten the ethics that should be associated with architectural practice and the potential of design in the construction of public life.
An itinerant exhibition in the form of letters written by architects to their mayors, Letters to the Mayor brings innovative ideas and visions of the city closer to the decision-makers, and vice versa.
Letters to the Mayor started in New York City in 2014 initiated by Storefront for Art and Architecture with a collection of letters from a series of international architects writing to their respective Mayors. Subsequent iterations, organized in partnership with local institutions and groups, bring relevant local and international voices onto the desks of elected officials and into the public consciousness focusing around particular cities as a way to explore specific territories. Previous and upcoming editions include: Panama City (Panama,) Mariupol (Ukraine,) Bogotá (Colombia,) Taipei (Taiwan,) Buenos Aires (Argentina,) Athens (Greece,) Lisbon (Portugal).
Design to power
Curatorial text by Monoambiente Espacio de Arquitectura & Diseño Experimental
Letters to the Mayor comes to Monoambiente after a very politicized year in Argentina. The 2015 elections have drawn a new political map for the country, and for the province and city of Buenos Aires.
Acting as a catalyst, Monoambiente has discovered in this collaboration with Storefront for Art and Architecture the possibility of fracturing the classic relationship between architecture and politics by reversing the logic of the relationship between the one who proposes and the one who executes.
Through this exchange, we attempt to empower the discipline of architecture by enabling architects to take part in the first moment of the discussion rather than act as constructors of what has been decided previously.
We believe in architecture and design as tools of transformation and we attempt to bring them to the cultural –and, in this case, political—scene of our city and of our region.
Letter to the Mayor is our first political commitment along these lines.
About Storefront for Art and Architecture:
Storefront for Art and Architecture (Storefront) advances innovative and critical ideas that contribute to an understanding and appreciation of the built environment and public life. Through exhibitions, events, and other public programming, Storefront provides alternative platforms for dialogue and collaboration across disciplinary, geographic, and ideological boundaries.
Images of Exhibition #14
Ph by Manuel Ciarlotti Bidinost
The boss’s desk
By Grupo Bondi
Promises kept
promises not kept
light a candle
make a request
say a prayer.
Layers on layers on layers
blur the (original) shape and shape a new one,
like a ghost but also like a shell that isolates you
soft, waxy and combustible.
The Common
By The Rock Instrument Bureau
What belongs to everyone. What everyone awaits.
Values that are obligations, portrayed with the simplicity of the images that represent them in a google search.
The Brick that is Home.
Metaphors for the public domain that intend to become the reminder of those values.
Reminder.
When you see a brick, work for access to a home.
Letters
Fernando Diez
Consejo Profesional de Arquitectura y Urbanismo [Professional Council of Architecture and Urbanism]
Juan Fontana
Roberto Frangella
Alfredo Garay
VDB Arquitectos
María Estela Baltroc
Gabriela Cárdenas
Nicolás Fernández Sanz
Dynamo
Alberto Gorbatt
Fabiana Martínez
Laura S. Horrocks
Colectivo Off the record
Versa Arq Oficina de Arquitectura [Architectural Studio]
Victor Ramos Pezzi and Ricardo Palmadessa
FRAM arquitects
Colectivo AS6030
Circular
LUPA ARQ
Becker Ferrari & García Balza - Gonzalez
Dino Buzzi
IR Arquitectura
Ariel Jacubovich
Alejandra Mestre
Luis J. Grossman with Román Peñalba, Carlos de la Borbolla and Ricardo Gersbach
Colle Croce
Gustavo Nielsen
Emilio Rivoira
AToT
BAAG
Monoblock
Roberto Busnelli
Alonso & Crippa
Christian Oets
Manuel Ciarlotti Bidinost
Ramiro Schere
Javier Agustín Rojas
Marcelo Corti
Esteban Tannenbaum Architects
Diana Cabeza
Moderna Buenos Aires
Néstor Magariños
CAZA
Adamo Faiden
Andrea Saltzman
Mauricio Corbalán
Nicolás Sarno Jordan
Galpón estudio
Ana Rascovsky
Esteban Radice
Adrián Gasparoni
Communication
Flyers & Tríptico by Ariel Di Lisio
Handing over letters to the mayor of the Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta
We would like to thank Paula Bisiau for the management of this encounter
GCBA in Monoambiente
As part of the exhibition #14 we developed Escuela de Gobierno (School of Government), in which we invited different areas of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires.
Through this exchange between politicians and architects we seek to give power to the discipline, meeting through letters at the primary moment of discussion.
The meeting was attended by the Secretary of Transport, headed by the Secretary of Transport Juan José Mendez, the Undersecretary of Sustainable Mobility, headed by Paula Bisiau and the Directorate General of Urban Regeneration Works, headed by the architect Juan Vacas.
Roaming of the exhibition
NYC - Panamá - Ucrania - Colombia. Imágenes cortesía Storefront for Art and Architecture
Conference Carlos Minguez Carrasco at Monte
As part of the exhibition #14, a series of conferences were held at MONTE, within the framework of the Ciclo Colaboratorio de Galería Monoambiente. The lecture – Letters to the Head of Government, given by Carlos Mínguez Carrasco (Storefront for Art & Architecture), was the first in this cycle.
Carlos Mínguez Carrasco talks about the history and principles of Storefront for Art & Architecture, covering the most important events of the gallery, up to Letters to the Mayor.
In the form of letters written by architects to their mayors, Letters to the Mayor aims to bring innovative ideas and visions of the city to decision-makers and vice versa. The exhibition rescues the role of the architect as a civic figure representing the interests and aspirations of society and attempts to reinsert him or her into the political plane as an agent of consultation, forming part of the processes of construction in the city.
Letters to the Mayor began in New York City in 2014, at the initiative of Storefront for Art and Architecture, with a collection of letters from different international architects addressed to their respective mayors.
Conference archive
B Side
Montajes [Production and installation of the exhibition] is a series of videos on the processes of constructing the space; it tracks the efforts made in the production of the pieces that have intervened in the Monoambiente gallery space.
Direction: Causa RDC
Archive
Disign process by Monoambiente: Plans
Exhibition #14 management process
Monoambiente Colaboratory2016
Monoambiente is back
Countdown: 100 days
Every government that takes office enjoys a “honeymoon”. It is a period to implement the government’s programme as fully as possible, in which society has a certain amount of hope for the new administration that takes office. It is often said that the first 100 days of a President, a Governor or a Mayor are decisive for the rest of his or her mandate. During this “honeymoon”, their popularity, leadership, and ability to influence public policy are of paramount importance, as the guidelines they draw up, both inside and outside the government, will influence their entire term in office.
The return of Monoambiente was a countdown to Exhibition #14, which was inaugurated 100 days into the government of Head of Government Horacio Rodríguez Larreta.
