Connected

The female Tiger Spider makes its web following the crochet pattern. She is big and spectacular in nature and now shows her work on this facade. The language of the women, the crochet symbols and the unique signature to stabilise her fabric, this is done with love.

I created this large scale painted artwork on the facade of a building in the centre of Riba-roja d'Ebre, Catalunya, Spain as part of the Riu d'art residency. The tiger spider can be seen in the local countryside and their webs are incredibly strong. Their bodies are enormous with details like armour.
After further esearch I discovered that this spider is the female tiger spider and it is generally larger than the male.
It makes its web between structures and creates a unique signature to stabilize and personalize its creation.
Talking with the owner of this house, I discovered that she loves to crochet. The crochet techniqe is being preserved here mostly by the women of the village. It is these female activities that protect and continue vital cultural traditions.

Bellvitge is a zone full of diversity, activeness, youth and all kinds of people who share spaces on their daily basis. This spaces are part of their identity playing an important role in their comunity. We noticed that a grand majority of the gathering okaces needed a little mantainance and features that the neighbors could enjoy and make their common areas more pleasant, creating this tree-like sculptures that actually adapts to any environment in need of some shadow and art.

El trabajo consiste en la relación y conexión de tres sitios: el parking de viviendas, la plaza y la rambla. Los tentáculos se entrelazan en la farola con una doble función: la de reactivar el sitio y unir al mismo tiempo zonas no conectadas. Los tubos representan esa union generando un crecimiento ascendente por la farola de las tres ramas que se termina sintetizando en altura en una sola como “union de partes”. Los extremos contienen macetas/tierra y un contenedor de agua; simbolizando las necesidades de espacios verdes y agua necesarios en estas zonas. 

Eligiendo los tubos de pvc azules, consideramos armar una escultura que se entrelace en la farola del extremo. Esta puede unir a traves de tres brazos extremos los tres puntos de conexion: el parking del housing, la plaza publica y las demas farolas. De este modo la escultura intenta habitar el lugar y a la vez conectarlo como nexo con el resto.

Emmanuel Levinas, a Western philosopher who criticizes the basic premise of Western philosophy: the subject 'I' that takes center stage. Just think of Descarte's famous quote "I think, therefore I am". The same 'I' perspective is often taken as a central point in architecture. The central point of Levinas is 'the other'. However, our mind is trapped in the 'I' dimension, quickly forgetting the other in it. With this research I want to give shape and substance to this phenomenon, the awareness of the other in the city, in the public space. I saw my home city of Ostend as a spatial lab, as a place where alterity thinking can be introduced.

The philosophy of Levinas shows that the interior of the house is an important place to be open to others. When we can show this inwardness to the other, we can build relationships with others. When the interior remains hidden, it misses the opportunity to reveal the other. In other words, if we can combine interior architecture with the Levinasian philosophy, we give the other a chance to be received through interior architecture in public space.

with this research I tried to expose the deep inside (the interior) into the public space for the other. The other is thus valued in his actual alterity in the public space. In addition, I argue that if we can turn the fixed points of the interior outwards, we better embrace the other by moving the central 'I-perspective'. It is therefore through our imagination that we get the chance to shape alterity thinking.

The design proposes a surrealistic cut, in which a shift between the boundary of the 'I' and 'the other' occurs by reversing the fixed architectural points. The act of inverting these values ​​is a spatial fact that results in a design strategy.

Winner of the audience award of the A-Place Mapping contest "Share your artwork" 2021