Art Cabinet

The Arts Cabinet is an art incubator and residence for artists, designed as an experimental permanent art installation conceived throw a lightweight, removable and parametrically designed devices, that shows and reacts in a transparent and clear way how art is created and shared. We propose a place for everybody, an open space that welcomes any artistic expression for experimentation and debate. The Arts Cabinet is also a space to be occupied, intervened and modified, so this relation with the space might become part of the artist’s work. In that way, it will be not only an art container but also the content itself, in a round trip dialogue. It is, therefore, a dynamic installation, alive, adaptable and in constant mutation.

Traditionally a cabinet of curiosities were encyclopedic collections, regarded as a microcosm or a theater of the world. The classic cabinet of curiosities emerged in the sixteenth century, although more rudimentary collections had existed earlier. The Arts Cabinet will recreate that theater of the world, giving numerous possibilities to artistic and creators, providing with tools and resources giving talented people a place where to create. Thereby, it will be a set of artefacts, equipments, tools and spaces to enable, develop, promote and exhibit various artistic expressions. It will be an interface between two situations: between the ideas and the concrete, between the artist and the audience, between fiction and reality, between the static and the dynamic, between the thought and the actions.

An artist’s incubator inside an 21st century skyscraper should assume that art is not a static and constant human activity, but actually an activity in a continuous search and adaptation to the present global context. Assuming that, The Arts Cabinet will occupy the atrium space through all kind of art’s experiences.

The Arts Cabinets will be a cluster of art experiences in the way of a lightweight pavilions set, that will be opened up from a vertical structure called "The cabinet". The cabinet will retain them when they are not in use, and also will hold the working spaces, the technical and mechanical rooms. As a result, the atrium becomes a place full of interactive activities, where the wall could become a screen, and the floor a stage, creating an atmosphere full of creativity.

The creative concept of the project originates on the idea of filling the atrium´s emptiness with art experiences and cultural expressions. Looking for new poetic, inspiring forms and materialities, the starting premises are:  a creative and inspirational atmosphere; the use of lightweight materials for not compromising the building structure; develop an easy mounting and maintenance structure; keep the atrium´s function as a meeting point and a connector. The program defines three removable pavilions connected throw a vertical light structure acting as an interface, and they will be open up and inflated on demand, in a simply and easy way.

These pavilions will act as a diaphanous limit between cultural activities; creating new spatial relations and new sensory experiences. They are three different types of pneumatic structures, designed to attend different activities related to art, from film screening to a painting workshop. Each one has its own infrastructure in order to work separately as they can be adapted and reconfigured, hosting from tiny individual shows to a bigger event.

The forms of the Pavilions are a celebration of lightness and diaphanousness. The functional and versatile architectural spaces are a series of parametric structures that responds to the interior, the program requirements and the ambient. The pneumatic and inflated structures create a series of internal and external spaces, each one with a particular character and functionality, that assists in the creation of new artificial landscapes for art installations or exhibitions.

The Intimate pavilion is a temporary inflatable space that has a like-a-hug shape and a zenith opening, creating a space with an intimate and surreal atmosphere.

The Exhibition(ist) pavilion is a moving pneumatic cellular-shape curtain that creates a place where several programmes are staged, like a film screening, a music show, dance performances or artist conferences.

The Synergistic pavilion is a temporary pneumatic torus that creates an ethereal transparent space where people gather, have experiences and search for their own works of art.