Agrosocial Infrastructure to Grow Crops of Voice-Equipped Citizens

In the city of Madrid, Institutional contemporary art centers tend to concentrate along the axis that joins the Avenida de América with Legazpi Square, meaning that they are lined up with the city center, in contrast to the geographic distribution of small music and theater groups or poetry associations, which are the most part evenly scattered throughout the capital’s extensive territory. While individually they culturally stimulate the local contexts in which their activities develop, altogether they make up, without a doubt, the cultural promotion and debate infrastructure with a greater impact upon the city.

The aim of this project is to endow Matadero Madrid, former slaughterhouse of the city and now an institution self defined as “public space for contemporary culture, with views on the river”, with the necessary material devices and institutional protocols to prompt a connection between the aforementioned models of intervention in the cultural field. To achieve this, the scheme proposes equipping the open spaces of the old abattoir with varied types of large-span mobile structures with sound amplifying systems, stage lighting and audiovisual projection systems, so that in combination with sliding stands, they may serve as auxiliary structures for any public performance held in this space. The use of these facilities would be organized in the same way as municipal tennis courts, which are booked by the hour. The materiality of the infrastructure is based on the idea of an odd assemblage of already inexpensive elements. Watering systems, Almería greenhouse fabrics, cheap plastic chairs…  A short of composite of ready mades, using existing technologies in a different way of that they were produced for. It is a technological reapropiation process, the office relates with the possibility of queer uses of available systems.

CREDITS. A project by Andrés Jaque Architects & the Office for Political Innovation (2012)

TEAM: Project: Ruggero Agnolutto (Project Responsible). Fernando Arocha, Ángela Bailén, Almudena Basabe, Elisa Bua, Álvaro Carrillo, Catalina Corredor, Roberto González García, Michal Just, Jorge López Conde, Marco Marcelletti, Paola Pardo, Khristian Serena, Patrycja Stal, Dagmar Stéeova, Silvie Talackova. Structure: BOMA. Equipment: Juan Carlos Lafuente, Álvaro Zamora. Photographs: Miguel de Guzmán. Sociological Research: Silvia Rodríguez. Video: Michal Just. CLIENT: MATADERO MADRID.