"The secret and impossible task I assigned myself when I took on this commission was to find a way to bring together Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Jean Genet. They both came from abroad—from opposite ends of the social spectrum—and engaged with Barcelona in a way that would have repercussions both there and around the world."
Terence Gower.
At world fairs, countries around the world offer a perfect, idealized version of themselves, creating elaborate exhibitions with pavilions built in an ideological location, set by the host country, and often closed to the rest of the city. Architecture unencumbered by functional concerns, which some would call “authentic,” has flourished in these places. Some of the pavilions even became icons of 20th-century architecture, such as those of Mies van der Rohe in Barcelona in 1929, Alvar Aalto in Paris in 1937, or Oscar Niemeyer in New York in 1939.
Terence Gower's project rewinds the clock and sets a retrospective experiment where a wild political and cultural swirl of the urban center of Barcelona of this period is insinuated into the immaculate and aspirational microcosm built on the heights of Montjuïc.
The Marge by Terence Gower. Photograph by Olímpia Solà Inaraja.
This almost invisible intervention works formally in a subtle and ephemeral way. The intervention is made up of four elements: a semi-translucent photograph on the glass that overlooks the pond, a choreographed musical performance, some diffused aromas; and a publication as the main component of the investigation, which leaves testimony of Gower's work and includes literary and journalistic documentation from the time of the original Pavilion, highlighting the queer subculture of the city with the collaboration of José Lahuerta and Celia Marín, two experts in the transcultural theme of the project.
These elements introduce part of the drama and disorder of La Barcelona Canalla, into the masterpiece of Mies and Reich. The Catalan word "marge", used in the title, defines the border between the worlds of "Barri Xino" and Montjuïc and the connotation of "le marginal", the French term for someone who lives on the margins of society.
The Marge by Terence Gower. Photograph by Olímpia Solà Inaraja.
"A monumental specter of the early 1930s drag performer la Asturiana is etched, Guadalupe-like, on the glass partition of the inner pool. She is a colossus, and in the most outrageous performance of her career, she has discarded her traditional mantilla and lace and has clad herself in the pavilion itself, insolently staring down visitors with her enormous eyes."
Terence Gower.
