About the Commission: Lara Almarcegui's project in the Spanish Pavilion

Under the curatorial guidance of Octavio Zaya, Almarcegui will bring two related projects to the Italian exhibition that continue in the same line as her previous works. One tackles the physical space of the Spanish Pavilion in the Giardini, while the other explores an empty plot of land beside the island of Murano.

In the pavilion, a large sculpture installation interacts with the architecture of the building constructed by Javier de Luque in 1922, occupying the entire interior. 

This intervention consists of mounds of different construction materials, of the same type and quantity used by workers to construct this very building in the early 20th century.

The installation revolves around a huge mountain of cement rubble, roofing tiles and bricks smashed to gravel which occupies the central room, making it virtually impossible to enter this space directly. Other lesser mounds, each of a different material (sawdust, glass and a blend of iron slag and ashes), will be located in the side rooms, which visitors will be able to walk through and so circle around the large central mound.

With regard to her project, Almarcegui explains, “The materials are the rubble from demolitions which, after being recycled, have been transformed into gravel by means of the treatment process currently used in Venice.”

1. Lara Almarcegui, Spanish Pavilion, la Biennale di Venezia, May 2013, Photo: Ugo Carmeni

2 - 3. Lara Almarcegui, Spanish Pavilion, la Biennale di Venezia, May 2013,  Photo: Claudio Franzini