LA ALDEA FELIZ: EPISODES OF MODERNIZATION IN URUGUAY

In this way, the book presents the 16 episodes as chapters, with a brief description, an analytical text, and a series of photographs and graphics in black and white. The episodes are: 01 “Living Pedagogy”, the relationship between intellectuals and the state, and the renovation of the educational system; 02 “Clinics”, the Surraco project and ideas about the health polis; 03 “Torres García”, art applied to “living machines”; 04 “The Happy Village”, a project by M. Cravotto that articulates the rejection of the metropolis, the claim of the garden city, hygiene and scientific urbanism; 05 “Ranchism” the search for rural housing and the connection with the thought of Cravotto, Gavazzo, Vilamjaó and Torres Garcia; 06 “San Marcos” the connection of Uruguayan architects with Venice; 07 “Punta del Este” experimental laboratory in Latin America; 08 “Rambla Horizontal” the waterfront, its language and the example of the Pan American; 09 “Curtain Wall” and the technological problems of the underdeveloped world; 10 “Planning”, instruments and mechanisms for the transformation of the

Uruguay”, page 23, (Uruguay, 2014).

33-” (...)follow the tracks of some projects thrown into the center of the chaos to try to build a coherent thought that could become a reality. Of these projects, it is worth analyzing their consistencies, measuring the insufficiencies and ingenuousness and following their most intricate ramifications”, Martín Craciun, Jorge Gambini, Santiago Medero, Mary Mendez, Emilio Nisivoccia, Jorge Nudelman, in Introduction of “The Happy Village: episodes of the modernization in Uruguay,” page 9, (Uruguay, 2014).

34- Interview with Emilio Nisivoccia.

35- “Francisco Liernur, “Modernos del gran Río” prologue of “La Aldea Feliz: episodes of modernization in Uruguay,” page 9, (Uruguay, 2014). http://www.fadu.edu.uy/iha/ territory, the example of “the physical equation for development” by G. Gavazzo; 11 “Catholics” the tremendous Catholic production in one of the most secular countries in Latin America; 12 “Cheap houses” the housing crisis, mutual aid cooperatives and the new urban forms of poverty; 13 “Unitor” The influence of Le Corbusier in Serralta; 14 “Caves and Psychedelia” The artificial cavern of Flores Flores; 14 “Heraldos”, the influence of Rossi’s visit and his message on Architecture; 16 “Laguna Garzón”, recent episodes of market intervention on the territory. files/2016/07/ Medero-M%C3%A9ndez-Nisivoccia-Nudelman.-La-Aldea-Feliz.-Episodesde-la-modernizaci% C3%B3n-en-Uruguay.pdf

The end was crossed by the bibliography of each of the mentioned architects, and the book became an input for future research. After the event, the production was exposed at the MNAV with an 8 m long shelf that included more material and some audio guides that guided the tour based on the stories.36 What would happen if the shelf were permanent?

Reboot,37 means restart and refers to restarting a story, not necessarily following the original story but keeping the essential elements. The proposal intends to restart the dialogue between architecture and the city regarding two stories related to the memory of Uruguay society that —at first reading— do not present a direct relationship with architecture, but —read through Aravena’s slogan— “reported from the front” it presents multiple readings correlated to architecture. It takes two episodes, the Tupamaro National Liberal Movement and the tragedy of the Andes.38

The exhibition consisted of an extension of the field of architecture, an abstract and metaphorical montage of these two episodes, which, as Roberto Fernandez expresses in his essay, reminds us of Joseph Beuys, and his powerful dramatic creations.39 The exhibition space was divided into two areas by a translucent curtain. In the larger space, there was a 60 x 60-centimeter hole on the floor with remains of ground and debris forming a slight slope, and in the smaller space behind the curtain was a print on the walls with sketches of both events and legends such as “We will understand what architecture is when our lives depend on it.”

The exhibition catalog begins with ten manifesto statements of what the exhibition is “not,” such as: “We do not present objects, but instead intangibles.” Ironically, the curatorial team indicates that the exhibition was not designed and executed by editors, translators did not translate it, and academics did not investigate it.40 The catalog was developed in three parts. The first is an Anti-

Architecture Essay,41 written by psychologist and professor Gabriel Galli, that addresses the two events from his media perspective and invites us to think about architecture from spontaneous practices. The second essay was written by Dr. Arq. Roberto Fernandez, entitled “Topography and catastrophe.” Fernandez took both lessons to rethink project action. One called inner-city, linked to the city deep, and the city as a natural topography and inhospitable environment of the political practices of the sixties.42 Another “outer-city,” outside the city, is the place of the catastrophe, in which “shift” predominates and eliminates the spatial transitions of the inner-city (public space and place of different fragments like the ghettos).43

In Marcelo Danza’s text “REBOOT: 2 architecture lessons,” Lesson 1 presents how “being inhabited what makes an object architecture,” analyzes the tragedy of the Andes and the mountain scenery linked to the change of scale, the loss of the urban,

Curators: Marcelo Danza, Miguel Fascioli, Marcelo Starico, Borja Fermoselle, Diego Cataldo y José de los Santos