A look at the pavilion's time when it was built.The Marge by Terence Gower
24/10/2023.
[BCN] Spain 21.10 > 05.11.2023
metalocus, ADELA BONAS
metalocus, ADELA BONAS
Terence Gower, a Canadian artist living in New York, presents "El Marge", a new artistic intervention in the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion that can be visited from October 21 to November 5, 2023. The work transports the visitor to Barcelona from the time when the original Pavilion was built, in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
"El Marge" is the result of extensive research work in literature (through the publication with the same name), the music of the time (with the performance of Ana Brenes), the application of an image (vinylized in the glass between the main room and the sculpture pond) and the aromas of the foggy atmosphere of that time, which allow us to generate a vision of the cultural and urban context of the time.
"El Marge" is the result of extensive research work in literature (through the publication with the same name), the music of the time (with the performance of Ana Brenes), the application of an image (vinylized in the glass between the main room and the sculpture pond) and the aromas of the foggy atmosphere of that time, which allow us to generate a vision of the cultural and urban context of the time.
The Marge by Terence Gower. Photograph by Olímpia Solà Inaraja
The Marge by Terence Gower. Photograph by Olímpia Solà Inaraja
The Marge by Terence Gower. Photograph by Olímpia Solà Inaraja
The Marge by Terence Gower. Photograph by Olímpia Solà Inaraja
The Marge by Terence Gower. Photograph by Olímpia Solà Inaraja
The Marge by Terence Gower. Photograph by Olímpia Solà Inaraja
The Marge by Terence Gower. Photograph by Olímpia Solà Inaraja
The Marge by Terence Gower. Photograph by Olímpia Solà Inaraja
The Marge by Terence Gower. Photograph by Olímpia Solà Inaraja
The Marge by Terence Gower. Photograph by Olímpia Solà Inaraja
The Marge by Terence Gower. Photograph by Olímpia Solà Inaraja
The Marge by Terence Gower. Photograph by Olímpia Solà Inaraja
The Marge by Terence Gower. Photograph by Olímpia Solà Inaraja
The Marge by Terence Gower. Photograph by Olímpia Solà Inaraja
The Marge by Terence Gower. Photograph by Olímpia Solà Inaraja
The Marge by Terence Gower. Photograph by Olímpia Solà Inaraja
"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.
More information
Artist
Dates
From October 21 to November 5, 2023.
Location
Mies van der Rohe Pavilion. Av. Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia, 7. Barcelona, Spain.
Photography
Olímpia Solà Inaraja.
Terence Gower
Terence Gower lives and works between New York, Mexico City, and France and is represented by LABOR, Mexico City.
In February 2024, The Power Plant Toronto will present EMBASSY, a survey show of Gower’s work on Cold War geopolitics, and in 2023 Gower will mount interventions in the Barcelona Pavilion and Philip Johnson’s Glass House. In 2021 Americas Society, New York presented Terence Gower: The Good Neighbour, a monographic study of Gower’s decades-long practice in Mexico. Gower has been shown in many museums and galleries internationally, including National Art Gallery, Canada; CAPC, Bordeaux, Institut d’Art Contemporain Villeurbanne, Lyon; Witte de With, Rotterdam; Museo Tamayo, Museo Jumex and El Eco, Mexico City; MARCO, Monterrey; Tensta Konsthal, Stockholm; MACBA, CCCB, and Centre d'Art Santa Mònica, Barcelona; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC; and the New Museum, MoMA PS1, Queens, and Bronx Museums, New York.
Recent large-scale commissions include Project Etere, Bali; Six Formes, Geneva; SuperPuesto, and Noguchi Galaxy, New York; Workshop Pavilion, Léon, Spain; and Bicycle Pavilion, Mexico City. He has participated in the Gwangju, Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Chicago (Architecture), Canadian (National Gallery), and Havana Biennials.
His video works have been screened at many museums including the Grazer Kunstverein, Austria; Stedelijk Museum SMBA, Amsterdam; Museo Nacional Reina Sofia, Madrid; Espai d'Art Contemporani de Castelló, Spain; Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montreal; Fundación Telefonica and the Architecture Biennial in Buenos Aires; and film festivals in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Florence, Palermo, Paris, Gijón, Rotterdam, Vladivostok, and Melbourne.
Gower has been invited to curate exhibitions and screenings at the New Museum, New York, Hammer Museum, LA (Modern Shorts), Smithsonian American Art Museum (Spans); Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City (Public Practice / Private Lives), and the San Francisco Art Institute (Tendencies) and has created exhibition architecture for ICA Philadelphia, CAPC, Bordeaux and MUSAC, León, Spain.
Books on Gower’s work include Terence Gower: The Good Neighbour (New York, 2021), Havana Case Study (Chicago, 2017), Display Architecture: Terence Gower Pavilions (Berlin, 2008), Ciudad Moderna: Terence Gower Videos (Madrid, 2006), and Appendices, Illustrations and Notes (coauthored with Monica de la Torre, Los Angeles, 1999), and he has published his writing in Mario Pani: Arquitectura en processo, Bomb, InSite, Roulette, Domus Mexico, Modern Painters, Cabinet, and the Archives of American Art Journal.
Gower has been honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship, University of Gothenburg Research Fellowship, Smithsonian Artists Research Fellowship, Canada Council Fellowship, Graham Foundation Fellowship, Peter Norton Family Foundation Grant, Cité des Arts Fellowship (Paris), and ParaSite Fellowship (Hong Kong), among others.
Photograph by James Peel.
In February 2024, The Power Plant Toronto will present EMBASSY, a survey show of Gower’s work on Cold War geopolitics, and in 2023 Gower will mount interventions in the Barcelona Pavilion and Philip Johnson’s Glass House. In 2021 Americas Society, New York presented Terence Gower: The Good Neighbour, a monographic study of Gower’s decades-long practice in Mexico. Gower has been shown in many museums and galleries internationally, including National Art Gallery, Canada; CAPC, Bordeaux, Institut d’Art Contemporain Villeurbanne, Lyon; Witte de With, Rotterdam; Museo Tamayo, Museo Jumex and El Eco, Mexico City; MARCO, Monterrey; Tensta Konsthal, Stockholm; MACBA, CCCB, and Centre d'Art Santa Mònica, Barcelona; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC; and the New Museum, MoMA PS1, Queens, and Bronx Museums, New York.
Recent large-scale commissions include Project Etere, Bali; Six Formes, Geneva; SuperPuesto, and Noguchi Galaxy, New York; Workshop Pavilion, Léon, Spain; and Bicycle Pavilion, Mexico City. He has participated in the Gwangju, Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Chicago (Architecture), Canadian (National Gallery), and Havana Biennials.
His video works have been screened at many museums including the Grazer Kunstverein, Austria; Stedelijk Museum SMBA, Amsterdam; Museo Nacional Reina Sofia, Madrid; Espai d'Art Contemporani de Castelló, Spain; Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montreal; Fundación Telefonica and the Architecture Biennial in Buenos Aires; and film festivals in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Florence, Palermo, Paris, Gijón, Rotterdam, Vladivostok, and Melbourne.
Gower has been invited to curate exhibitions and screenings at the New Museum, New York, Hammer Museum, LA (Modern Shorts), Smithsonian American Art Museum (Spans); Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City (Public Practice / Private Lives), and the San Francisco Art Institute (Tendencies) and has created exhibition architecture for ICA Philadelphia, CAPC, Bordeaux and MUSAC, León, Spain.
Books on Gower’s work include Terence Gower: The Good Neighbour (New York, 2021), Havana Case Study (Chicago, 2017), Display Architecture: Terence Gower Pavilions (Berlin, 2008), Ciudad Moderna: Terence Gower Videos (Madrid, 2006), and Appendices, Illustrations and Notes (coauthored with Monica de la Torre, Los Angeles, 1999), and he has published his writing in Mario Pani: Arquitectura en processo, Bomb, InSite, Roulette, Domus Mexico, Modern Painters, Cabinet, and the Archives of American Art Journal.
Gower has been honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship, University of Gothenburg Research Fellowship, Smithsonian Artists Research Fellowship, Canada Council Fellowship, Graham Foundation Fellowship, Peter Norton Family Foundation Grant, Cité des Arts Fellowship (Paris), and ParaSite Fellowship (Hong Kong), among others.
Photograph by James Peel.
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