Pirámide. An urban art project by SpY (2013)
Artium, Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo 2013
Curator: Sergio García Bayón (SC gallery Bilbao)
Curator of Mutatis Mutandis programme: Blanca de la Torre
SpY bursts on the scene in Vitoria-Gasteiz with Pirámide, an urban art project for Artium’s Mutatis Mutandis program
• It involves a 11-metre-high pyramid construction made with construction site fencing with which this Madrid-born artist tries to break the visual monotony of life in large cities
• Mutatis Mutandis is a programme that claims the external spaces of Artium as a support for artistic creation in which artists such as Juan Zamora and Pia Camil have already taken part
Artium, Basque Centre-Museum of Contemporary Art, presents Pirámide, a project of urban art by the Madrid-born artist SpY for the Mutatis Mutandis programme. Within what is generally known as public art, the piece is a 11-m-high pyramid shaped construction made from construction site fencing and has been installed next to the main entrance to the museum. As with many of his works, SpY seeks to break the visual monotony that characterises life in large cities and to seek the involvement of passers-by in their own city, the basic elements for the dynamic use of public space. The work creates great visual tension in an urban environment dominated by blocks of flats and office buildings, by the large public space generated by the Centre-Museum and by the large number of passers-by. Mutatis Mutandis is a programme of small art projects for the external areas of Artium, which aims to claim these as integral parts of the special architecture of the building, deriving from its museum-warehouse nature. This project has been curated by Sergio garcía Bayón (SC gallery Bilbao).
Mutatis Mutandis
Pirámide, by SpY is the third project that Artium presents for Mutatis Mutandis programme, just after The Vulture Shadow, by Madrid based artist Juan Zamora and Black Square, by mexican artist Pia Camil. Mutatis Mutandis is a latinism that means “changing what must be changed”, an expression that must be understood as “we will continue the same but doing the necessary changes”. In this case, the idea behind this new initiative is to activate the outer spaces of Artium with a series of micro-projects that all through a year will spread over the inner place, the façade, the sideways or any other space around the Museum.
The purpose of Mutatis Mutandis is to show how the contents of arts and culture are not only inside the building and that the outside of it are also part of the museum. This is specially meaningful for a museum like Artium, with a peculiar architecture that spreads below the street level –like a wine cellar- and thus remains aparently invisible to observer. The programme also strenghtens the aim of architect José Luis Catón: to make the most of the original features of the site were the museum had to be built and create a wide space for public uses.
Photographs: SPY Copyright Oficial © SC Gallery + Art Management.
