jueves, 25 de diciembre de 2014

El pueblo Africano donde cada casa es una obra de arte

ORIGINAL: UpSocl
Por Francisco Lira

Burkina Faso no es una zona frecuentada por los turistas, pero en la base de una colina con vista a la sabana de África occidental se encuentra un pueblo extraordinario. Un complejo de 1,2 hectáreas con arquitectura circular de tierra, intrincadamente bello. Es la residencia del jefe, la corte real y la nobleza de la gente Kassena, que colonizaron la región en el siglo 15, convirtiéndose en uno de los grupos étnicos más antiguos de Burkina Faso. Este pueblo es Tiébélé.


El pueblo se mantiene extremadamente aislado y cerrado a los extraños, muy probablemente para asegurar la conservación y la integridad de sus estructuras y de proteger las tradiciones locales.


Una residencia real en el África no es lo que podríamos pensar en cuando imaginamos palacios reales. En Tiébélé, la corte real se compone de una serie de pequeñas estructuras de adobe, cubierto con pinturas de arcilla naturales, con patrones geométricos elaborados para diferenciarlas de las casas de la gente común.


Toda las fotografías son de Rita Willaert

martes, 8 de abril de 2014

No más “Bug Splats”

ORIGINAL: Occupart.org


En el slang militar, Bug Splats” hace referencia a la muerte de las personas que desde la visualización de la cámara de un Dron, se ven como pequeños insectos aplastados.


Un colectivo artístico instaló en el suelo de Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa, en Pakistán, una de las zonas más afectadas por estos bombardeos, una fotografía a gran escala de una niña en representación de todos los niños que podrían convertirse en víctimas de los ataques, retando así la insensibilidad de los operadores de los aviones. La imagen está diseñada para ser captada por satélites, para que no sea sólo una iniciativa temporal, sino que sea incorporada permanentemente en los mapas satelitales que se encuentran en la red.


La iniciativa tiene como referencia el arte de JR, un artista francés que se ha dedicado a utilizar las imágenes a gran formato como forma de protesta social.

Los creadores esperan con su obra de arte gigante “crear empatía y reflexión entre los operadores de los aviones no tripulados, y que pueda llegar a generarse un diálogo entre los autores políticos, para que finalmente se implemenen decisiones que salvarán las vidas de gente inocente.

La identidad de la niña es anónima, pero de acuerdo con Foundation for Fundamental Rights (FFR), la niña perdió a ambos padres y dos hermanos menores a causa de los ataques de Drones.

Fuente: http://notabugsplat.com/

martes, 1 de abril de 2014

Doris Salcedo a través de un libro

ORIGINAL: El Colombiano
Por MÓNICA QUINTERO RESTREPO
31 de marzo de 2014

La expografía llama la atención desde el muro que hay afuera de la sala. FOTO MANUEL SALDARRIAGA

De lo que no se puede hablar es un libro que Mieke Bal, gran teórica del arte, escribió sobre la artista Doris Salcedo. Ahora se edita en español y se puede empezar a leer en una expografía.

Están repetidas, muchas veces, como si fuera un conjuro. Letras blancas, fondo negro, mayúsculas. En el muro no hay más palabras que esas siete, de las que no se sabe nada, tampoco: De lo que no se puede hablar. Hay dibujos, pero los dibujos también están repetidos.

Al frente del puente que hay en la Facultad de Arquitectura y Diseño de la UPB, arriba de la puerta de la sala de Arquitectura, antes del muro que tiene las hojas con las palabras repetidas, está el video en el que aparece la primera señal de respuesta. Se habla de Doris Salcedo, la artista colombiana que puede vender una obra por más de 300 mil dólares.

El video de la pared blanca es para continuar la pregunta. ¿De qué es lo que no se puede hablar? La respuesta está después de la puerta de la sala de Arquitectura, donde está la expografía y unas máquinas de producción editorial e industrial y fotos de las obras de Doris Salcedo y un libro y las páginas del libro pegadas a la pared, pero la historia comienza mucho antes y con el nombre de Mieke Bal, la historiadora, crítica de arte y teórica de literatura. Porque no habría expografía sino hubiera libro.

El libro
"El libro es un proyecto de la Universidad de Chicago, escrito por la teórica de los estudios visuales, una figura muy reconocida, Mieke Bal, en el que hace una mirada retrospectiva de la obra de Doris Salcedo. Si nosotros revisamos, la fortuna crítica de la artista es muy alta, pero en producción intelectual no se ha escrito mucho sobre ella. Ha sido reseñada por los grandes periódicos, pero nunca se había hecho un texto académico de tal profundidad", explica Lucrecia Piedrahíta, la curadora.

Mieke empieza a hacer el libro en 2002. En algún momento visita el Moma, Museo de Arte Moderno de Nueva York, donde se encuentra con Atrabiliarios, la obra de la colombiana. La teórica queda con la idea, contacta a Salcedo e inicia un trabajo de reflexión desde lo antropológico, lo filosófico, la comunicación, los estudios visuales.

"Lo hace para acercarse a la propuesta —sigue Lucrecia— y, en última instancia, hablar de si en la obra de Salcedo existe decididamente una postura frente a lo político. El nombre del libro, Of what one cannot speak Doris Salcedo"s political art, es contundente, porque ha hecho una revisión lúcida de los fenómenos de la violencia en Colombia, del desplazamiento, de la discriminación, de un país construido a partir de las diferencias".

Mieke va a analizar esos temas que, por la construcción estética y plástica que les da la artista, se vuelven universales, sin perder la singularidad, y ahí está su potencia conceptual y formal. La teórica revisa en el libro la pregunta por el arte político y desde ahí por otras ideas, como la relación entre espacio y escultura, espacio y obra instalada, contenido y contenedor, los cuerpos mismos.

—Contra la violencia masiva que amontona innumerables zapatos como vestigios de la masacre (en relación a la obra Atrabiliarios), pero desdeña la singularidad irreductible de cada víctima, el arte de Salcedo lleva a cabo una búsqueda indagatoria de la singularidad. Su obra la concibe como herramienta con la cual el arte adquiere un tipo de agencia cultural eficaz y con consecuencias en la llamada esfera de "lo político" — escribe Mieke en el libro, que se publicó en inglés, en 2010.

En español
La noticia de ahora, cuatro años después, es que Of what one cannot speak. Doris Salcedo"s political art será De lo que no se puede hablar. El arte político de Doris Salcedo, es decir, tendrá su edición en español.

Entonces hay que devolverse en el tiempo, otra vez. Lucrecia contactó a la crítica en 2009, cuando ella todavía escribía sobre Salcedo, como una admiradora más de su escritura y su análisis del arte y hasta le envió el capítulo de la tesis de su especialización, que referenciaba la obra de Salcedo. De conversación en conversación, Mieke le propuso coordinar la edición en español De lo que no se puede hablar, en el que, para su sorpresa, citó sus ideas, y en eso anda, junto a Formacol y la Universidad Nacional, desde entonces. La traducción es de Marcelo Cohen y el crítico español Miguel Ángel Hernández, muy cercano a la teórica.

El libro será lanzado en Medellín y Bogotá en mayo y vendrá Mieke y habrá conversaciones. Habrá una exposición, curada por Lucrecia, sobre el proyecto Madame B que hizo Mieke con la artista Michelle Williams, con el que llevaron al cine una versión contemporánea de Madame Bovary.

Será la primera vez de la crítica en Colombia y la segunda en Latinoamérica, pues ya estuvo en México, en una muestra que curó Néstor García Canclini.

Un acercamiento

Lo que pensó Lucrecia fue que no se podía solo presentar el libro, sin preparar al público, para que la gente tenga herramientas para leer la obra de Salcedo. "Si hablas de Doris hay una cosa muy especial y es que la gente o la ha escuchado nombrar o la conoce someramente, casi todos solo recuerdan la grieta. Lo que queremos es profundizar".

La expografía que se muestra en la UPB, con el nombre del libro, De lo que no se puede hablar —por eso la repetición en el mural, como invitación a entrar— es, por tanto, ese primer acercamiento. No es una exposición, precisa Lucrecia, porque no se expone la obra de Doris, sino el pensamiento estético de Salcedo revisado desde la academia por Mieke Bal.

Hay videos sobre Doris, con testimonios que ayudan a explicarla y a conocerla, está el libro físico, hojas del libro dispuestas a manera de archivo en la pared y fotografías de la obra que se extraen del documento, frases de Salcedo y de Mieke. Además está una maquinaria que hizo parte de la editorial Colina, que cuando entró a la sala paralizó el sector de la universidad, por la osadía de meter tres máquinas tan grandes y tan pesadas en esa sala pequeña. "No es musealizar el libro —precisa la coordinadora—, sino ponerlo en conversación con ese laboratorio experimental que representa un taller editorial".

Al final, 400 páginas que hablan de Salcedo y una historia que empieza en Mieke, pero termina en el público. En última, comenta la curadora, es una cita con las palabras y, por supuesto, con el arte de la artista contemporánea más importante que tiene Colombia, por ahora. La misma que dice, según se lee en el libro de Mieke, "creo que el arte siempre es producto de una necesidad"

DESDE ADENTRO

UN TRABAJO EN EQUIPO
La expografía se puede ver desde el martes, en el bloque 10 de la UPB. Para el proyecto editorial de traducir el libro a español, a la oficina de Lucrecia y los arquitectos Julián Oquendo y Julio César Cabrera quienes actúan como museógrafos, los apoyaron la Universidad Nacional, sede Medellín, y el industrial Hans U. Steinhäuser. Más tarde se unieron la Alcaldía y la UPB. El libro será lanzado el 22 de mayo en la Universidad Nacional. El proyecto Madame B se expondrá en Eafit y en la Nacional.

EN DEFINITIVA
Este martes se inaugura una expografía del libro De lo que no se puede hablar, que la teórica Mieke Bal escribió sobre Doris Salcedo. Un primer acercamiento a un proyecto más grande. 

martes, 11 de marzo de 2014

Artist carves phone books into portraits to honor the faceless

ORIGINAL: Mother Nature Network
Thu, Nov 21, 2013
Photos: Alex Queral/Projects Gallery

Nobody uses phone books anymore, right?
Wrong. Using the very same bulky, cumbersome books that most of us toss into the recycling bin without a second thought, artist Alex Queral carves amazing 3-D sculpture portraits featuring subjects like celebrities, world leaders, and even abstract creations.

"In carving and painting a head from a phone directory, I’m celebrating the individual lost in the anonymous list of thousands of names that describe the size of the community," Queral says in his artist's statement. "In addition, I like the idea of creating something that is normally discarded every year into an object of longevity."

* * *


"Alex Queral carves a face into this object of so many faceless names," the Projects Gallery description of his artwork reads. "With the book, a very sharp X-Acto knife, a little pot of acrylic medium to set detail areas and a great deal of talent, Queral literally peels away the pages like the skin of an onion to reveal the portrait within."

* * *

Albert Einstein
* * *

Clint Eastwood
* * *

Alfred Hitchcock
* * *

President Barack Obama
* * *

David Bowie
* * *

 
Louise Fletcher as Nurse Mildred Ratched, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"

* * *

Dalai Lama

* * *

Young Bob Dylan

* * *

"Alter Ego"

Flavours Orchard, an ambitious eco-project in China


Flavours Orchard, 45 Plus-Energy (BEPOS) Villas In A Smart Grid
Kunming 2014
Yunnan Province, Southwest China


TYPE : Architectural & Engineering Commission
CLIENT : Private Developer, Kunming
PROGRAM : Construction of 45 Plus-Energy (BEPOS) Villas
PROJECT TITLE : Flavours Orchard
CONTRACT PERFORMANCE LOCATION : Dianchi Lake, Kunming, Southwest China City
SURFACE AREA : 90.000 m²
YEAR : 2014
VCA’S TEAM: Jiaoyang Huang, Benoit Patterlini, Maguy Delrieu, Olivier Sylvain, Vincent Callebaut




THE FLAVOURS ORCHARD
CONSTRUCTION OF 45 PLUS-ENERGY (BEPOS) VILLAS IN A SMART GRID
KUNMING 2014, YUNNAN PROVINCE, SOUTHWEST CHINA

1. CHINA’S ECO-HIGH-TECH CITIES : TOWARDS AN ENERGY EFFICIENT COMMUNITY IN KUNMING

Stepping out of your plus-energy house regulating the light and the temperature cleverly and automatically according to the sun’s path. Catch the vital energies of the nature by training ourselves Tai Chi Chuan or Qi Gong under a snow of cherry tree petals. Cultivate together with our neighbors the community vegetable garden. Harvest the organic vegetables for the family dinner. Wander between the marshes of rainwater harvesting and the recycling lagoons where the sky of koï carps is covered of lotus flowers. Swim in a naturally filtered swimming-pool. Admire the elegant and nagging axial wind turbines.

Listen the laughter of children of the eco-district who share with their grandparents the games of Mahjong, Go and Cuju in the wild field. Recycle our organic waste in compost wells producing natural fertilizer. Sort out the other waste via a silent and underground pneumatic collection system. Go to work by electric bicycle or driverless car (Electric Networked-Vehicle), both recharged directly by the photovoltaic roof of the house. Follow the road whose sensory LED lights match according to sounds and movements of the city-dwellers.

This is the Eco-High-Tech atmosphere of the “Flavours Orchard” project. It’s a pioneer project that fights for the conception of eco-responsible lifestyles along the Daguan river connecting the “Emerald”, the green lake of the city centre of Kunning, to the magnificent Dianchi Lake in the South. Capital of the Yunnan province, the city is located at 1894 meters high and benefits from a temperate climate all the year that gives to it the charming name of «The City of Eternal Spring ».

The site of several hectares is an old industrial wasteland devoted to be restored in a new eco-district whose exemplarity in terms of sustainable innovations is supposed to be reproducible everywhere in China. The leitmotiv is to produce more energy and biodiversity than we consume by recycling at the same time our waste in reusable natural resources endlessly towards a post-nuclear, post-fossil and zero carbon emission city. Through the creation of such projects, China is recovering its delay on the ecological debt reimbursement and tries to slow down the massive rural exodus it suffers by the creation of new urban prototypes mixing all the advantages of the city and the countryside.

2. 45 PLUS-ENERGY (BEPOS) VILLAS PLANTED IN THE SMART GRID OF A COMMUNITY ORCHARD

The building sector is a primary energy consumer particularly in China (40% of total consumed energy) in front of the transports (30%) and the industry (30%). It is responsible for more than 40% of total emissions of CO2. It’s obvious that the energy savings are thus the major economic and ecological challenge for this sector. Whereas the prices of the fuel and the non-renewable energy increase unavoidably, the objective is to divide by 10 the consumption of this construction sector for an equivalent service within the next ten years.

In this perspective, the concept of this new « Flavours Orchard » eco-district is to build 45 Plus-Energy Villas in a huge community orchard/food garden integrating a Smart Grid self-managed by the gardener-inhabitants and the participants of the project.

In the heart of this nourishing landscape, the goal is to associate a state-of-the-art for smart building automation systems and information integrated in each villa (leading to cost reduction and Increased functionality) with an intelligent energy network in order to redistribute the produced excess (electric, calorific, food) towards the nearest needs so as to prevent from the loss in lines or related to the storage systems. In addition to the fuel cells, the electric vehicles are also used as buffer storage of electricity excess produced by the solar roofs assuring thus the daily travels of the inhabitants for free.

The objective is also to repatriate the production of the organic agriculture in the heart of the city, center of its consumption. This bio-geographical integration of the master plan respects the natural qualities of the site and maintains the continuity of the endemic ecosystems (trees, hedges, streams, floras and fauna are preserved). Flavours Orchard is a genuine garden sharing its energies designed and cultivated collectively. Ideas are here more shared than the ground, the sun or the wind because it deals not only with producing what to eat, lighten and air conditions but also to meet on a common ground of ecological experimentations and collective projects. It’s an urban landscape open to everybody without fence between the villas, in favor of the neighborhood relationships and the intercultural and intergenerational social links. It’s an educational tool about the environment respect thanks to its ecological master plan, its organic agriculture technics, its smart home automation strategies and its integration of renewable energies.

The private garages for electric cars and the technical rooms for home automation are located underground. This basement distributes each villa under the central path to liberate completely the orchard dedicated only to pedestrians, cyclists or electric driverless cars.

The future families of these Plus-Energy villas will be able to live and work comfortably in their villa reinventing new eco-responsible lifestyles maximizing the normal living standards.

The 45 Plus-Energy Villas produce more energy from renewable energy sources, over the course of a year, than they consume from external sources. This is achieved by using large North and South facing window areas to allow sunlight to penetrate the structure, by reducing the need for energy use from air cooling units and light bulbs with triple-glazed windows, and by the addition of heavy insulation that means the structure is already warm in the evening and therefore needs less heating.

These passive buildings (BEPAS) that capture heat during the day in order to reduce the need to generate heat over night, exceed their energy needs through renewable energy production by the integration of solar photovoltaic and solar thermal panels, geothermal heat exchangers, and combined heat and power units (CHP). All grey water is recycled in lagoons for agricultural irrigation and toilet flushing. All waste water will be sent to bio-reactor facades (with panels filled with algae) for anaerobic digestion and the methane emitted during the digestion process will be used to produce energy and to cool the interiors.

The construction of positive energy constitutes a high technological and conceptual rupture. These villas are thermally insulated without discontinuity and without thermal bridges. They are airtight, present controlled ventilation and are also equipped with economical domestic appliances of A+++ class. They generalize the LED lighting with automatic detection of presence and needs. They have a total consumption of primary energy (heating, sanitary hot water, lighting, all appliances) estimated at less than 50 kWh/m2/year for an average production that can reach 100 kWh/m2/year via the sun or wind. According to the usage of inhabitants, the consumption of primary energy could even decrease under 35 kWh/m2/year.

The 45 villas building with a wood/steel structure are divided into three architectural typologies forming thus 3 eco-districts having their own identity:

2.1. THE “MOBIÜS” VILLA (15 units)
The Mobius Villa is organized around an endless ribbon drawing the symbol of infinity around two patios, one aquatic and the other planted. This ribbon with primary steel structure and secondary wood frame is built from the repetition of one trapezoidal module repeated 24 times in the space. This module, opened at 30 degrees forms thus a pedestrian sloping path of 720 degrees along its double revolution. It contains all the bedrooms, the bathrooms, the offices, the libraries and the game rooms. It is covered by a green roof, true suspended vegetable garden with high thermal inertia and with a zenithal photovoltaic glass roof. The curved geometry forms a snake in sustentation on top of a façade in “8” with supporting frames. Louvered shutters in translucent glass pivot automatically along this glass facade to regulate the solar inputs during the day.

The panoramic ground floor aims at immersing the diurnal life spaces in the heart of a clearing coiled in the orchard. The living room, the kitchens and reception rooms are located around the central vertical axis of the project. Actually at the intersection of the double loop, the vertical circulations distribute the 4 inhabited levels and the garden roof.

2.2. THE “MOUNTAIN” VILLA (15 units)

The Mountain Villa opens out at 180 degrees such as a huge Chinese fan built from east to west to ideally follow the sun’s path. It’s a double-skin architecture presenting a south facade very glazed and a very opaque north façade in wood presenting 20% of perforation. The 22 arches are linked together by cables. They are closed by solarized photovoltaic glass panels. Panels filled with algae are also integrated to the conception in the 7 central arches to produce bio-hydrogen. The second exterior skin develops a glued laminated timber frame and works as a huge windscreen shaped in wood lace. This trellis enables to assure the intimacy of the inhabitants and to regulate the inputs of heat by subduing the solar rays from east to west.

In the center of the villa, an atrium full of light raises on 4 levels. A spiral staircase coils around a panoramic glazed elevator to distribute all the night and relaxation spaces. The living rooms and reception spaces are opened towards the landscape by a big arch going through the North and South facades.

2.3. THE “SHELL” VILLA (15 units)

The Shell Villa liberates itself from the ground on its 6 stainless steel pillars to stretch towards the sky and to make its axial wind turbine higher than the top of the fruit trees. A circular deck takes the loads of a glued laminated timber carpentry that is plaited in diamonds such as a conical Chinese hat. It’s a cocoon villa drawn in double curves and organized around three patios in spiral that fit closely the membranes of the twisted wood beams.

These patios are isolated by the glass façades whereas three stainless steel petals put on insulating cushions coat the structure from outside. This radiant wood structure is divided into 36 standardized beams that are spaced out from each other by 10 degrees from their center. Thus, from the life spaces we obtain panoramic views on the whole orchard whereas an elevator goes through all the levels to the top of the mast of the axial wind turbine.

These three typologies of Plus-Energy Villas set up in the clearings of the great community orchard are the symbol that it is possible to invent new contemporary models of eco-responsible housing mixing the economical evolution in China and the worldwide respect of the environment. The precursory inhabitants are linked together by their citizen commitment for a new ecological ideal that is energetically efficient, collective and sustainable.

Through Architecture, the social life between city and countryside is first of all reinvented!

© Vincent Callebaut Architect
ORIGINAL:  Vincent Callebaut 



Could this ambitious project combine what's best about city and rural living? 

Could this ambitious project combine what's best about city and rural living?

The “Flavours Orchard” project, near the city of Kunming in southwest China, will be built on 22 acres of former industrial wasteland.

It’s a way for China to “slow down the massive rural exodus it suffers by the creation of new urban prototypes mixing all the advantages of the city and the countryside."

Each of the huge, light-filled houses in the design is energy-efficient, and intended to produce more power than it consumes, thanks to renewable energy sources.

The houses will be hooked into an on-site smart grid, so extra power can be stored in fuel cells.

Electric cars and bikes in underground garages can also store electricity.


Outside, the homes will be surrounded by a huge orchard and vegetable garden.

The objective is to repatriate the production of the organic agriculture in the heart of the city, center of its consumption." The garden is also intended to help neighbors meet each other as they grow food.

The neighborhood will have three different types of homes. The "Mobius Villa," designed in a loop, combines a vegetable garden on the roof with photovoltaic glass. Shutters in glass walls pivot to regulate heat and light.

The "Mountain Villa" uses panels filled with algae to produce bio-hydrogen. The "Shell Villa" is built around a wind turbine.



The Flavours Orchard project combines the advantages of the city and country as a way to slow down China's rural exodus.

Over the next 12 years, the Chinese government plans to move 250 million people from farms and villages to newly built cities. At the same time, some city dwellers are starting to escape back to the countryside, fed up with certain aspects of city life, like air pollution in Beijing that some scientists are now comparing to nuclear winter. A new development in Kunming hopes to offer a little of both urban and rural life: Sustainable buildings are built in the middle of a functioning farm.

The “Flavours Orchard” project, designed by French architect Vincent Callebaut near the city of Kunming in southwest China, will be built on 22 acres of former industrial wasteland. It’s a way for China to “slow down the massive rural exodus it suffers by the creation of new urban prototypes mixing all the advantages of the city and the countryside,” Callebaut writes on his website.

 

Each of the huge, light-filled houses in the design is energy-efficient, and intended to produce more power than it consumes, thanks to renewable sources like solar panels and geothermal heat exchangers. The houses will be hooked into an on-site smart grid, so extra power can be stored in fuel cells. Electric cars and bikes in underground garages can also store electricity.

Outside, the homes will be surrounded by a huge orchard and vegetable garden. “The objective is to repatriate the production of the organic agriculture in the heart of the city, center of its consumption,” Callebaut writes. The garden is also intended to help neighbors meet each other as they grow food. "It’s an urban landscape open to everybody without fences between the villas, in favor of the neighborhood relationships and the intercultural and intergenerational social links," he writes.


The neighborhood will have three different types of homes, each with state-of-the-art sustainable features. The "Mobius Villa," designed in a loop, combines a vegetable garden on the roof with photovoltaic glass. Shutters in glass walls automatically pivot throughout the day to regulate heat and light. The "Mountain Villa" uses panels filled with algae to produce bio-hydrogen. The "Shell Villa" is built around a wind turbine.

We couldn't reach Callebaut to find out when, or even if, this development will break ground. But if it does get built, it could serve as a model for China's other new cities.

ORIGINALS:  Fast Company