Lara Almarcegui will open tomorrow Brachflächen, Grabungen, Baustoffe (Fallow land, excavations and construction materials) in Bremen, with the support of Acción Cultural Española (AC/E). The show brings together works from past years about very different cities and a new project developed specifically for Bremen.
Lara Almarcegui focuses on the processes of urban transformation and the interfaces through which such processes manifest themselves. Her gaze rests on urban architecture and the empty spaces which usually go unnoticed. Indeed, these objects and spaces are the ones which most clearly reveal the urban planning of cities. The Spanish artist systematically compiles and documents historical, geographical, ecological and social data from different sections of the urban space. The results of her survey work are objectively presented in installations, plans, photographs, guides and brochures which drive viewers to explore for themselves the spaces and their characteristics.
The current model of urban development is increasingly dictated by urban planners, architects and private users who enjoy ever greater control over public space. This over-planning contrasts in Lara Almarcegui's work with the barren spaces which she believes represent spaces of freedom. These spaces, which lack objective or design, embody a counterpoint to all other urban architecture. Unconquered areas which allow us to observe disintegration processes and the encroachment of wilderness. To this end, the artist seeks to preserve and safeguard certain barren spaces within the city, which include protecting these areas from any kind of intervention which would alter them, for a limited or unlimited time. A spot in the city is thus (temporarily) preserved and transformed during this period into a space for memory, free of imposed change. The current development of the city of Bremen (in the Überseestadt sector) is of particular interest to Lara Almarcegui, who has for some time been working to protect a piece of land in the Überseehafen docks. A free guide will be produced, with the agreement to preserve this land, with information about the history, present and future of the zone.
While this project focuses on outer space, two other works exhibited here deal with inner spaces. In two rooms she removed the floor (parquet and asphalt, respectively) before reinstalling it. These actions are each documented in a recording illustrating the meaning and nature of the floor. In Materiales de construcción del centro de Lund (“Construction materials of the Lund centre”), Lara Almarcegui goes beyond the superficial and concrete aspects of the two buildings. For this project the artist examined the construction materials of the urban centre of Lund, thereby reducing the heart of an entire city to its material basis. Revelation and analysis are the instruments she uses for exploring the identity of places.