Starting on 21 October, ‘Far Away So Close’ (MEATS 19-20) will be installed in three different locations in Olot during the next 9 weeks to foster civic interaction in times of pandemics. First, it will be in Parc Espunya, a public park next to Fluvià river, then it will be moved to Bonavsita neighbourhood and will finish its journey in Pla de Dalt.
"FAR AWAY, SO CLOSE," Press Release
Master’s degree in Ephemeral Architecture and Temporary Spaces (MEATS). ELISAVA School of Design and Engineering. http://meats.elisava.net/
‘Far away, so close’ is a proposal developed in the unit that MEATS dedicates each year to emergency architecture. The global pandemic generated by the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has prompted us to focus our energies on studying its effects and on offering ways of improving this new reality, which is ours for the foreseeable future.
‘Far away, so close’ began with extensive research into how the pandemic is transforming the organization of our domestic and collective habitats, as well as the effects of these changes on the physical, mental and emotional health of our society. One of the main conclusions of this research is the urgent need to revise the concept of social distancing, a controversial notion that could have devastating consequences if, as can be expected, this new reality persists over time.
Now is the time for new proposals that posit physical distancing as an opportunity to generate dynamics that foster empathy and social cohesion, steering clear of regulatory and coercive solutions that merely offer diminished versions of the experiences we had before the pandemic.
‘Far Away, So Close’ proposes a new dynamic for relating in collective space that harnesses physical distance as a factor for activating and intensifying intimate relationships. The social distancing implemented in response to the pandemic is understood as an opportunity to create interaction instead of isolation. A series of mobile sound mirrors installed in public space engender different modes of interaction through the logic of play: a giant game of Chinese whispers; a concert where the music is heard on separate tracks; a personal message conveyed across a crowded square...
‘Far Away, So Close’ lets us whisper a secret from 20 metres away, an intimate experience made magical by distance.
The project was conceived, developed and built entirely by MEATS students and by their professors Xevi Bayona, Toni Montes and Roger Paez. It received support from the Olot City Council, and the first installation in public space took place in the Firal in Olot, on 17 July 2020.
BTS + "Beautiful Failures," unearthing the Pavilion
Unearthing the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona! A century later and finally gave breath to its foundation. Found some very interesting trinkets underneath—a map, coins, gold stars. Truly an experience, kind of like when Elio and Oliver were pulling those Greek statues out of the lake in CMBYN 😄. Looking forward to seeing this project come to light ⚡ Cheers to the team @stellaraholamatutes @meats.elisava @fundaciomies
MEATS Workshop in Olot, Spain
In keeping to the CO-VID precautions imposed within the country, our team spent a part of the time co-living and working at Xevi Bayona’s workshop.
‘Far Away, So Close’ began with extensive research into how the pandemic is transforming the organization of our domestic and collective habitats, as well as the effects of these changes on the physical, mental and emotional health of our society. One of the main conclusions of this research is the urgent need to revise the concept of social distancing, a controversial notion that could have devastating consequences if, as can be expected, this new reality persists over time.
BTS + "Beautiful Failures"
Beautiful Failures is a collection of discarded hand blown glass pieces, collected by Elisava’s Masters in Ephemeral Architecture and Temporary Space Design students, under the supervision of Stella Rahola Matutes and Roger Paez, in collaboration with Fundació Mies van der Rohe.
BTS + ÀNIMA, Llum Festival 2020
BTS + "Beautiful Failures," experiments at the Pavilion
Beautiful Failures is a story of construction-destruction-construction to reflect on the rich history of the German Pavilion of Barcelona 1929 International Exhibition. At the same time, it considers current events that transcend material culture and question our memory and ethics. We fervently think that the pavilion’s history and its context embraces and exalts the grudges and desires we come to tell.
In 1914, while Mies van der Rohe began sketching the glass skyscraper for the Friedrichstraße competition, Paul Scheerbart published Glasarchitektur (Glass Architecture). In this essay, the author demanded a replacement of brick construction in architecture in favour of glass. The possibility of transparency of this material encouraged the idea of generating a new society by releasing it from the shadows.
The properties of glass have always caused a mystical fascination. Due to its appearance as an amorphous material, it resonates with bright minerals. It presents complex qualities such as fragile hardness. It also brings danger such as razor-sharp edges, or high temperatures when in viscous state.
While many architectural utopias are framed in glass’s hypnotic qualities, many dystopias have been devised based on its contradictions. Mies’s and Reich’s German Pavilion is a clear example of glass’s ambivalence. Its polished surfaces of stones and water sheets seek to mirror the intrinsic qualities of glass: transparency and reflectiveness. The pavilion’s architecture of reflexes and see-through followed the idea of progress and freedom in a new German republic. However, in the last decades, glass has been applied to continuous curtain-walls in corporate buildings and anonymous architecture. Devoid of its suggestive and quasi-mystical origin, plate glass has emulated the tenets of globalized modernity to the point of becoming its symbol. Despite its obvious failures and explicit horrors (e.g., 9/11), this image of modernity continues to thrive in our collective memory.
