2021, May 27
The New EUR Rome Convention Center “The Cloud” featured in Symbols & Iconic Ruins exhibition at EMST – National Museum of Contemporary Arts of Athens, Greece
137 artists, architects and και art historians from Greece and abroad present 110 works at the Temporary Exhibitions Space (-1) of EMST from 27 May 2021.
SYMBOLS & Iconic Ruins explores the ways in which we perceive and approach powerful cultural symbols, bringing together under a common conceptual framework contemporary works of art and architecture by prominent artists and architects from Greece and abroad.
The exhibition marks an attempt to synthesize different conceptualisations of the symbol, by drawing eclectic affinities and highlighting common features, regardless of the radically different points of departure and processes involved in their production. In addition to independent artworks, which reflect on the relationship between artistic and architectural creation, the central core of the exhibition consists of three distinct but interconnected themes: the Acropolis of Athens, the post-war architecture in Central Europe and references to the Berlin Wall. According to Panayotis Pangalos, the chief curator of the SYMBOLS & Iconic Ruins exhibition: “the aim is to establish a unique dialogue between different species of ruins that hold pertinent symbolic value.”
“We have always dreamt of building something like a cloud”
Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas present their project “La Nuvola – New EUR Rome Convention Center” completed in 2016, through a collection of original drawings and the exhibition of some of the many objects produced. Sketches, paintings, study architectural models and a large model in plexiglass and steel to illustrate the project as a symbol for the city of Rome, exhibited for the first time in Athens.
One of the first concept-sketches already tells about the building: a red cloud with jagged lines, suspended with light signs suggesting a transparent rectangular cage. The structure is sketched in pencil and frames the red cloud, orthogonal and rational like the city, while the shape of Cloud recalls the foliage of the pine trees of the road in front of the building.
Today entering the heart of the building is like entering directly into the drawing. Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas have translated their two-dimensional sketches into a three-dimensional space. The cloud is made with steel ribs that form curves, arcs, that hover in flight and then dive as if they were floating elements in the absence of gravity. The structure captures the energy of the architects’ paintings and drawings without anything being lost in translation.
Date
May 27th / August 31st 2021
Venue
EMST – National Museum of Contemporary Arts of Athens, Greece
Organiser
Citylab
Chief Curator: Dr Panayotis Pangalos, Architect and Associate Professor at the Department of Interior Architecture, University of West Attica
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