Shadows of memory. Memory lattice by Carmen Moreno Álvarez
31/10/2017.
[Granada] Spain
metalocus, JOSÉ FABERO
metalocus, JOSÉ FABERO
Project description by Carmen Moreno Álvarez
After the end of the Spanish Civil War, the space next to the walls of the cemetery of Granada was the scene of the execution of 4,000 people. The project is a tribute to the victims, a place of remembrance for the relatives, and contributes to preserve the historical memory of this area.
The place of the project is a cemetery’s outskirts space that is located in the territory of the Dehesa of Generalife next to the Alhambra. It is surrounded by an olive grove, a path and a row of cypresses. The work starts from a reflection on how to project with the memory to turn the past into an element of living landscape and in close relationship with the place.
The new iron lattice of 43m length is located over an existing stone wall there. It is made from the information recorded on the deceased - name, place of origin, date of death and age -, a transparent and light element that is integrated in the territory without transforming it, a poetic resource that superposes the names and its stories on this emblematic landscape. The lattice allows to read the names of the anonymous people suspended in the air on the olive grove; also on the walls of the cemetery that still retain the holes of the bullets, elements that shape this area and now construct new landscapes around the names cut in the lattice.
Located against the light of dawn, the lattice produces a set of daring shadows that throw the texts on the topography of the land reaching to reach the walls of the cemetery at certain times of the year. As if it were a sundial, the lattice prints on the earth, the road and the walls the shadows of the names that changing according to the inclination of the light.
The gaps between the words can be used to place the flowers that the people brought in honour of the deceased. The circles that stiffen the trimmed iron plate can be used to house the bouquets of flowers. The lattice turns into a wall full of vegetation and colour on some dates, dynamic and loaded with symbology which provides contiguity between the collective memory, the past and the landscape.
Carmen Moreno Álvarez.- Graduated as an architect from the School of Architecture of Granada where she is Project professor since 2007. Visiting professor in Porto, Munich, Lisbon, Catania, Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona (UIC), among others. Awarded in Residential Architecture award (exaequo with Álvaro Siza) of the COAG 2005 / Finalist in Spanish Architecture Award / Finalist in FAD award 2007 / Honorable mention in LAMP 2015 / Awarded in Emporia of Gold award 2016.
Her projects have been published in architecture magazines and books, and she participates in exhibitions as: “Unfinished” in the Spanish Pavilion of the 15th Biennale di Architettura di Venice 2016 which had being distinguished with the Golden Lion of the Biennale; The MIPA in Beijing Design Week 2014 (China); “Próxima” Arquia Foundation 2008 and 2010; “JAE-YAS. Young Spanish Architects” Ministry of Development of Spain 2007-2013; II Canarias Biennial 2009: Architecture, Art and Landscape; 9th and 15th Biennale di Architettura di Venezia 2008 and 2016.
Since 2011 collaborates in the project Atrio de la Alhambra by Álvaro Siza and Juan Domingo Santos. She has developed projects about Museology and Exhibition Design for the Picasso Museum in Málaga and the Science Park of Granada and graphic design works for the Arquia Foundation and the Alhambra and Generalife Council. She is co-director of the XIII Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism.