exhibition at the Charles H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
List of works in the exhibition:
Video "LIVING MEGASTRUCTURES"
23 minutes, spanish with english subtiteles
In the video „Living Megastructures", Caraqueños are interviewed about the everyday use of two megastructures - the new constitution and social housing project 23 de Enero. The views of the architects, social activists, governmental experts, artists, and people who live in 23 de Enero elaborate the relationship between these two productive forces which shape Caracas.
Billboard "VERTICAL BARRIO"
Architectural drawing of the facade of block 26 and 28
23 de Enero was designed by Carlos Raul Villanueva as the largest the social housing project in the 50ies in Caracas. In 1958, when the uprising against the dictatorship of General Pérez Jimenez took place, 4000 of the 9000 apartments of the housing project were squatted by campesinos and the poor. Since then, 23 de Enero has been a highly politicized and well-organized urban site which hosts radical social movements and organisations. Today, the alterations of the facades witness the process of appropriation and modification of architectural space by the people who squatted the unfinished apartments.
Billboard "SUPERCITIZENS"
Series of 7 drawings, each 85 x 62 cm
clockwise
"The Bolivarian workers at the front line of the revolution"
"The union of housewifes"
"The Revolution will not be televised"
"Self-organized media are the basis of freedom of expression!"
"The land belongs to the people"
"International solidarity for the bolivarian process"
"Workers are the constructors of the country"
Billboard "THE CONSTITUTION AS MEGASTRUCTURE"
Asci print on paper, 400 x 226 cm
In Venezuela at this moment, participatory democracy is associated with the making of the new national constitution in 1999. It is one of the major projects of Hugo Chavez Frias, the elected president since 1998, who is leading the process of social, political and economic transformations. The very popular constitution, which consists 350 articles is the source text for the asci print representing the housing project 23 de Enero.
PHOTOGRAPHS
all 14 x 20"
entrance left clockwise
1 – 11
Parque Central, commercial and residential megastructure from the 1970s, international solidarity forum April 2003, an international symposium to mark the first anniversary of failed coup against Hugo Chavez
10
urban agriculture project
12 - 18
Barrio La Vega, Barrio Los Winches
19
1st of May march through Caracas, basis for a SUPERCITIZEN drawing
20
international soldarity forum outside Parque Central
21
Handing out of the first land titles in the barrio Catia, Caracas
22, 23, 24
a former PDVSA building, which is now also used by the Ministry of Energy and Mining
back wall
25-29
Cerro Grande, Apartment blocks by Raul Villanueva, 1952, El Valle, Caracas
right walls from the back
30-36
Universiad Central de Venezuela, by Raul Villanueva, Caracas, since 2002 world heritage site
37– 51
23 de Enero, public housing project by Raul Villanueva, 1952-1958, consisting 9000 apartments, Caracas
37
school director’s office at elementary school in 23 de Enero
40
office of the community organization Coorinadora Simon Bolivar-
and a collection of Venezuelan constitutions |
