Coinciding with the 722nd jubilee of the founding of Bilbao City Spain, Martillo Neumático- a young Spanish collective has created an ephemeral intervention, named Cuerpo Gris means Grey Body, on the occasion of Bilbao’s 2022 Gau Zuria (White Night) festival. Around 28 captivating interventions were displayed in the festival that is designed to convert the Basque capital’s urban landscape. The sinuous inflated installation by Martillo twists through and engulfs the entire courtyard of the 16th-century building that also accommodates the Sacred Art Museum. Read more about the project below at SURFACES REPORTER (SR):
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The young Spanish collective- Martillo Neumático is known to transform the usual dynamics of urban spaces, and come up with this site-specific intervention that meanders to the central courtyard of the former Convento de la Encarnación.
Design Details
The inflated imposing organic volume consists of three tangent pieces of variable diameters, which sum more than 120 meters of linear length and reach a height of up to six meters, spread and covering the museum cloister within a few minutes.
“Following a detailed study of the site and a handcrafted production of the patronage, Cuerpo Gris is able to adapt to the cloister’s topography. Rooted in the ground, it ties the boxwood bushes and absorbs the centenary olive tree in its twists.”
The installation opens in space, twisting between the different elements of the garden and enveloping the lily fountain which remains an unaffected central symbolic element
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Series of Routes and Cavities
The unique installation offers a distinct and immersive experience with its giant scale and appearance, defying the human body with a strange presence that is never completely exposed.
The experience of Cuerpo Gris’ atmosphere is realized in a number of routes and cavities that disclose a fragmented vision of space and play with the visitor. The installation is ‘‘a monstrous corpse that traps you in its interior and oppresses your gaze, immobilizes you, rolls you up softly in intimate spaces, expels you and invites you to straddle it.”
In 2019, Martillo Neumático was awarded for their project- Eclipse in the Insolit Festival in Palma de Mallorca. In 2020, the firm showcased Desplome (Collapse), a counter-monument located in the ruins of the former Iglesia dels Dolors, for the festival A Cel Obert of Tortosa.
Project Details
Project Name: Cuerpo Gris
Designer: Martillo Neumático
Design Team: Mon Cano, Iñigo Barrón, Jerome Lorente, Roman Sost
Collaborators: Inés Miño, Ana Moure, Cesar Fuertes, Tarino Cano, Patricia Salazar
Photography: Antonio Bouzas
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