Research project by -Arquitectura Subalterna-
Team: Víctor Cano Ciborro + José Javier Cullen + José de Andrés + Ana Sabugo
Site: Clichy-sous-Bois (Paris)
Awarded and exhibited at the XX CHILEAN ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM BIENNIAL “Unpostponable Dialogues”   www
Exhibited at VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE 2018. ‘BECOMING’ Spanish Pavilion
List of Participants announcement. Archdaily.com
Anuncio COAM - Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid

Published at ‘Diálogos Impostergables’ XX Chile Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism Catalogue

Today, fully immersed as we are in the post-truth era, reality seems to be verified through data and surveys that seek to monitor our decisions and postpone the social and spatial conflict caused by late capitalism. Appealing to notions such as affection, feeling, eroticism or identity has become necessarily rare to allow for contemporary spatial dynamics. However, these emotional rather than rational dimensions are visualised with great intensity in the periphery of cities, particularly where modernist paradigms take the form of great blocks built in avenues far removed from the human scale.



The children and grandchildren for whom these architectures were conceived now occupy the spaces, but not in the way their parents or grandparents were told; in the catechism of the Athens Charter or Modulor’s dogmatism. Rather, it is from a point of “profanation”, or, in the words of the Italian philosopher Gigorio Agamben, “restoring the space to the free use of men”.

These contemporary inhabitants, presented as “Modulor’s Bastard Children” – a complex and fascinating cosmos of subaltern groups (immigrants, homosexuals, refugees or women) who refuse to be accomplices to an environment constructed from imposition, regulation, and dogma – rebel against a deeply ideological space designed for the honourable behaviour of a white super-man, 1.83 metres tall with an athletic figure: Le Corbusier’s Modulor.  




In this context, inhabiting the modern periphery becomes a powerful act of resistance, where feelings, aesthetics, and identities seek to reaffirm and strengthen forgotten bonds in modern constructions. The periphery is now a confrontation between the emotional dimension of the space where the body fights to be recognised, and the rational one where, in the words of Lefebvre, the self-destruction of desire reigns supreme.



XX BIENAL DE ARQUITECTURA Y URBANISMO DE CHILE 2017
Official Website www.impostergable.cl

La XX Bienal de Arquitectura y Urbanismo es una iniciativa del Colegio de Arquitectos de Chile realizada en colaboración con la Asociación de Oficinas de Arquitectos y la Red de Escuelas de Arquitectura y Urbanismo de Chile.

Pensar en lo que consideramos impostergable desde la arquitectura y el urbanismo nos presenta la necesidad urgente de trabajar con aquellos que residiendo al margen, no han visto reflejadas sus necesidades y aspiraciones en lo urbano. Es fundamental generar una instancia de diálogo en el que participen las diferentes fuerzas que dan forma a nuestras ciudades, establecer un nexo con los demás países del sur global e incluir en la discusión a aquellos que han sido históricamente postergados.
La invitación es por tanto a una bienal no sólo conmemorativa, sino propositiva y volcada a la acción, en términos de proyectos e investigación, que no sólo se limite a exponer lo existente, sino que sea detonante de nuevos desafíos. Se busca una bienal no encerrada en su claustro disciplinar, sino abierta a la ciudadanía, con sus nuevas formas de dialogar e interactuar, y que su proceso no termine con su día de cierre, sino que trascienda a través de propuestas, proyectos y acciones que surjan de ella.