The route through the different venues of Manifesta in the metropolitan area includes some highlights. For example, among the new works by Catalan artists participating in the biennial, such as Domènec's project A Century of European Architecture at the MAC Prison, located in the former Mataró prison, designed by architect Elies Rogent, which is the first example of the panoptic model applied in Spain. Domènec's project is based on philosopher Giorgio Agamben's idea that the paradigm of 20th-century architecture, more than rationalism, is the device of the concentration camp, and it questions the neutrality of architectural devices.
Repressive architecture
Part of Domènec's proposal, which is primarily documentary in nature, involves reconstructing the old wall that separated the men's module from the women's when they left the center. Domènec's goal is, as he himself says, to "recover part of the forgotten memory of the building" and "alter the physical experience of visitors," as they must retrace their steps to fully see the presentation of the project. The project includes the plans of about thirty different locations from 1914 to the present, such as concentration camps, refugee camps, immigrant detention centers (CIE), and other buildings that were temporarily used as places of detention—stadiums, universities, or bullrings—for people from groups such as Jews, Roma, Spanish Republicans, Croats in Serbia, Serbs in Croatia, Communists in Finland in 1918, the LGBT community, and refugees from the Syrian war, among others.
September 19, 2024
