Coinciding with the 722nd anniversary of the founding of the city of Bilbao, Martillo Neumático created an ephemeral intervention, entitled CUERPO GRIS, on the occasion of the Gau Zuria-Noche Blanca festival in which 28 artistic interventions were displayed transforming the urban landscape of the Biscayan capital.

"Cuerpo Gris/Gray Body", is a site-specific intervention that massively invades the cloister of the old convent of the Encarnación. In just a few minutes, an imposing volume of organic forms unfolds, colonizing the central garden of the 16th-century convent. The installation, with a continuous, sinuous and soft body, is proposed as a contrast to the repetitive rhythm of the arches and the tectonic rigidity of the carved stone ashlars.
The proposed intervention has been carried out by Martillo Neumático, a young group focused on ephemeral site-specific interventions of a monumental nature. His proposals and works appear suddenly to alter the nature of public space.

In 2019 they performed the work "Eclipse", a winning project at the Insolit Festival in Palma de Mallorca. Among other works, in 2020 they presented "Desplome", a counter-monument in the ruins of the old Dolors Church for the A Cel Obert festival in Tortosa.

CUERPO GRIS by Martillo Neumático. Photograph by Antonio Bouzas.
 

Project description by Martillo Neumático

This new volume affects the cloister in a radical manner. Cuerpo Gris unfolds in space, winding between the elements of the garden around the lily fountain which remains as a central symbolic element. The inflated structure follows the main axes of the courtyard and its soft body is composed of three tangent pieces of variable diameters, which sum more than 120 meters of linear length and reach a height up to 6 meters.  Thanks to a detailed study of the site and a handcrafted production of the patronage, Cuerpo Gris adapts to the cloister’s topography. Rooted in the ground, it ties the boxwood bushes and absorbs the centenary olive tree in its twists.

The experience of the atmosphere is materialized in a series of cavities proposing a fragmented vision of the space. The installation plays with the visitor: Cuerpo Gris alternatively immobilizes you, rolls you up softly in intimate spaces, expels you or invites you to straddle it. A monstrous corps that traps you in its interior and oppresses your gaze. The monumental appearance confronts the human body with a strange presence which is never revealed completely.

More information

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Authors
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Martillo Neumático. Mon Cano, Iñigo Barrón, Jerome Lorente y Roman Sost.
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Collaborators
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Inés Miño, Ana Moure, Cesar Fuertes, Tarino Cano and Patricia Salazar.
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Client
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Gau Zuria-Noche Blanca, Bilbao.
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Dates
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June 17 and 18, 2022.
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Location
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Cloister of the old Convento de la Encarnación. Plaza de la Encarnación, in the Atxuri neighbourhood, Bilbao, Spain.
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Photography
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Antonio Bouzas.
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Martillo Neumático presents itself as a group linked to production, design, art and architecture with origin in the School of Architecture of Madrid. It is composed of Iñigo Barrón, Mon Cano, Jerome Llorente and Román Sost.

Currently, its members are concluding their academic stage at ETSAM while developing various professional activities in the field of art and architecture. Its members work in a wide variety of formats and scales ranging from furniture to (self)construction of urban infrastructure. Previously, they have collaborated in the design, production and execution of various projects with the Active Laboratory of Social Architecture in Communities (LAASC) in Mexico, the WoodFolk Festival in Madrid, the Ayna Al Hayat collective in Greece or the mmmm... public art firm looking for new forms of open and experimental architecture.

Their work has been shown in the Spanish pavilion of the Venice Architecture Biennale (Becoming), the Pan American Architecture Biennial of Quito (BAQ2018) and the Ibero-American Design Biennial (IDB). They have also been published in various magazines such as Pasajes, Arquitectura Diseño e Innovación or generalist media such as the newspaper El País. Regarding their academic career, their have studied in the Polytechnic University of Madrid in addition to the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Barcelona (ETSAB), the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) or the Accademia di Architettura diMendrisio (AAM).
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Published on: July 12, 2022
Cite: "CUERPO GRIS an ephemeral intervention by Martillo Neumático " METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/cuerpo-gris-ephemeral-intervention-martillo-neumatico> ISSN 1139-6415
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