PRADA POOLE THE PERISHABLE ARCHITECTURE OF SOAP BUBBLES
Artista / Artist: José Miguel de Prada Poole (Valladolid, 1938) Comisariado / Curatorship: Antonio Cobo Arévalo Coordinación / Coordination: Helena López Camacho
Fechas / Dates: 28 de septiembre, 2019 – 12 de enero, 2020 September 28, 2019 – January 12, 2020
Sala / Hall: 3
Co-producido con / Co-produced by:
Portada: José Miguel de Prada Poole. Pista de Patinaje sobre Hielo de Sevilla (Seville Ice Rink), 1975. Cortesía del autor. Courtesy of the author
Prada Poole. The Perishable Architecture of Soap Bubbles is a monographic exhibition dedicated to architect José Miguel de Prada Poole (Valladolid, 1938) that for the first time surveys his most significant projects and his contributions to the field of architecture. Prada Poole won the National Architecture Award in 1976 and his projects can be counted among the most representative of Spanish architecture: Instant City, built on occasion of the 7th International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) held in Ibiza in 1971, the Domes of the Pamplona Encounters of 1972 and the El Palenque open theatre built for the Seville World Fair of 1992. The exhibition reveals the visionary talent of a unique architect, clearly ahead of his times, who over the course of his career has managed to combine art and science, reality and utopia, present and future. An architect whose oeuvre, yet to be studied in depth, is characterised by his ability to adapt to social and environmental changes, as we see in his ephemeral designs in response to the needs of the present. These flexible, adaptive designs show a marked sensitivity to natural resources and energy consumption, and are still cutting edge. From the onset of his career, Prada Poole has understood architecture as a predictive activity before an increasingly liquid, unstable reality. Different future perspectives are, indeed, a constant in his designs, occasionally transformed into a fictional architecture in which he has rationally speculated about scientific, technical and social advances.
www.musac.es
Musac. Avda. Reyes Leoneses, 24. 24003, León. T. 987 090 000
The origin of the exhibition title lies in an article written by José Miguel himself in a special issue of El Urogallo review published in 1974 dedicated to the analysis of the ‘city’ in
which he presents the foundations of his work, championing an architecture in which the material used to build the city provides the temporal dimension of its very existence — hence his preference for the term perishable rather than ephemeral (more commonly used in architecture to refer to short-lived constructions). The ephemeral doesn’t last long; the perishable founders when the matter that shapes it founders. The exhibition is structured in four sections that chronologically embrace Prada Poole’s projects and contributions to architecture in response to social and scientific changes: Technological Optimism (1968-1972), a period in which computer science and technology play a key role in his town planning; Social Revolution (1971-1975), years in which he worked on ephemeral projects adapted to specific needs of the moment; Energy Crisis I (1973-1976), a period marked by the first great international energy crisis that followed the rise in price of oil; and last but not least, Energy Crisis II (1976-1988), years characterised by his reconsiderations and combinations of engineering, architecture and town planning to implement microclimatic control in his designs. Scale models, photographs, plans, essays and interviews account for the rich and prolific career of the architect from Valladolid, highlighting his most recognisable themes applied to the building of pneumatic structures and paving the way for his subsequent architecture, especially as regards its technological features.
28.09.19-12.01.20
SALA 3
PRADA POOLE LA ARQUITECTURA PERECEDERA DE LAS POMPAS DE JABÓN THE PERISHABLE ARCHITECTURE OF SOAP BUBBLES