For over two decades Recetas Urbanas, the architectural firm led by Santiago Cirugeda, has constanly worked towards defining and re-defining public spaces. They have questioned how they are managed, used and configured with projects that revolve around political demands of educational, economic, health, cultural or countercultural interest. They have done it through self-build, reused materials, public participation and collective design. The exhibition usted está aquí. 20 años de Recetas Urbanas (You Are Here. 20 Years of Recetas Urbanas) is a co-production by the Fundación Luis Seoane and MUSAC (Leon’s Museum of Contemporary Art) and has been curated by Recetas Urbanas and Elvira Dyangani Ose. It seeks to put the audience within the context, time and space of a collective experience that begins inside the building housing the project. It places visitors within that institution, in the city where it is located, the province, the region, etc…, and gives them a set of tools that they can use to solve any particular needs and problems in their surroundings.
One of the halls of the building has been converted into a studio where visitors will have access to AV and printed materials –blueprints, assembly flashcards, notes, letters exchanged with multiple actors, information packets, budget plans, invitations, drawings, photographs, etc.–, in their original and facsimile versions, from several projects and over two decades of architectural work. Usted está aquí also provides resources on four case studies, four recent projects that perfectly exemplify how Recetas Urbanas works: the common room for CEIP Europa, a primary school in Dos Hermanas, Sevilla; Habitar el Aire, a project commissioned by Madrid’s Naves de Matadero; a collaborative project for this year’s edition of Art Basel, in Switzerland; and The Green Mountain in De Coninckplein, Antwerp. Those fours projects had very different goals, and were all done taking into account their local context; along with other materials and documents, they offer an inside look into their M.O., and allow the audience to explore the different elements that make up the stages of formulation, production and implementation of each project in a process of collective knowledge where the ways of doing, learning and having fun are all interwoven.
usted está aquí. 20 años de Recetas Urbanas will run at the Fundación Luis Seoane until 18 November.