"The Competition" / doc movie on a competition of architecture. Madrid-based architect Angel Borrego Cubero, of OSS, has directed and produced the first documentary focused on the tense process that often characterizes an architectural competition. Appropriately titled The Competition, the film captures a fascinating account on how five world-famous architects – Jean Nouvel, Frank Gehry, Dominique Perrault, Zaha Hadid and Norman Foster– toil, struggle and strategize to beat the competition. The film depicts a recent competition for the new National Museum of Art Andorra, a small Pyrenees country nestled between Spain and France.
For the first time, "The Competition" is going to be shown outside Spain, in two test screenings: the first one will be at Instituto Cervantes New York (Monday, March 4th 2013, 7 pm Instituto Cervantes, 211 East 49th Street, Manhattan) and the second one at Harvard University (Friday, March 7th 2013, 3 pm, Graduate School of Design, Piper Auditorium, 48 Quincy St, Cambridge). The screening at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design will be preceded by a small introduction given by director Angel Borrego Cubero, and followed by a discussion with the audience and professors Jeffrey T. Schnapp, Iñaki Ábalos and Preston Scott - Cohen. The event, curated by Daniel Ibañez, has enjoyed the support of the Design Thinking Student Group.
Synopsis
A documentary movie constructed as an almost uncomfortable but intensely fascinating account of how some of the best architects in the world, design giants like Jean Nouvel or Frank Gehry, toil, struggle and strategize to beat the competition. While nearly as old as the profession itself, architectural competitions became a social, political and cultural phenomenon of the post-Guggenheim Bilbao museums and real estate bubbles of the recent past. Taking place at the dramatic moment in which the bubble became a crisis, this is the first competition to be documented in excruciatingly raw detail.
Jean Nouvel, Frank Gehry, Dominique Perrault, Zaha Hadid and Norman Foster are selected to participate in the design of the future National Museum of Art of Andorra, a first in the Pyrenees small country. Norman Foster drops out of the competition after a change in the rules that allow the documentary to happen. Three months of design work go into the making of the different proposals, while, behind doors, a power struggle between the different architects and the client has a profound impact on the level of transparency granted by each office to the resident documentary crew, and which has a definite influence in the material shown in the film.
The presentations to the jury happen in one intense day close to election time in Andorra, becoming a hot event in the tiny country, with media all around the international stars that may help shape its future. Of the four remaining architects three show up to make personal presentations, every one of which becomes a fascinating study in personality, strategy, character, showmanship… and a dramatic moment in which any detail becomes both important and irrelevant, the line between failure and success perfectly imperceptible. But does the jury have the last word?
The Competition is the first film documenting the tense developments that characterize architectural contests. The documentary has been completed in January 2013 and is expected to debut in late 2013. Updates will be available on Office for Strategic Spaces’s website and facebook.
CREDITS
Cast of participant architects.-
Frank Gehry // Jean Nouvel // Zaha Hadid // Dominique Perrault // Norman Foster.
Team.-
A production by Office for Strategic Spaces (OSS)
Director and Producer.- Angel Borrego Cubero
Technical Director and Editor.- Simon Lund
Assistants to edition.- Gaël Urzáiz, Cristina Hortigüela
Musical arrangements and production.- César Bartolomé
Funding and collaborations.- Fundación Arte y Derecho, Govern d’Andorra, Lord Culture, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Ateliers Jean Nouvel, Dominique Perrault Architecture, Zaha Hadid Architects, Gehry Partners.
Cameras.- Gaël Urzáiz, Loreto García, Sara Verd, Simon Lund, Angel Borrego Cubero
Trailer.- Angel Borrego Cubero, Simon Lund
Promotion & PR.- Simona Rota
