The conference is organised because of the tenth anniversary of Alumilux & Metall-lux. The intervention, Somni, which means sleep in Catalan, is performed by Jaime Prous Architects and takes place in Banyoles on the Alumilux & Metall-lux spacecraft. During the first hours it is discreet but according to the passenger the time awake and reflects sound lights in a magical way the atmosphere of the room.
Description of the project by Jaime Prous Architects
A rain of steel cables has 890 aluminum profiles suspended 2.4 meters from the ground. This aluminum carpet creates a new space inside the ship where daily welding, cutting, and mounting the projects of other professionals.The intervention is ephemeral but mutant. At the beginning of the act, the clarity of the day reveals the sculptural character of the scenery. During conference and catering, artificial light embellishes and enhances aluminum. Finally, at nightfall, LEDs inside each profile illuminate the cocktail and create a 1:1 scale catalog for the 200 guests.
"Somni d'una nit de primavera"
Alumilux celebrates a meeting between outstanding architects of Catalonia as RCR. For this reason, and for the first time, it opens the doors of its facilities to the public in Banyoles. With the help of the team of Jaime Prous Architects, they decide to invoke Somni to accompany them throughout the evening.
It is five o'clock on a spring afternoon. The teams are invoking Somni: Álex, Nara, Eli, Pere, Oriol, Xevi .... They all call him. Finally, inside a cold industrial ship, an intense rain of steel appears. Suddenly, everything is calm, the rain has stopped and has given way to an aluminum cloud. Now, Somni is here.
It's seven in a spring afternoon. The time has come, we have to introduce Somni to his audience. During these first hours, Somni is shy and discreet. He does not know how to express himself. He takes refuge in that cold and hard image that aluminum and steel transmit. However its beauty is unparalleled, the light, projects in it a fun game of reflections and shadows. The slight sigh of the wind generates a tinkling which draws our attention even more. Now, Somni is waking up.
It's nine o'clock on a spring night. At dusk, the intensity of natural light descends and gives way to an intense red, which manifests the last sighs of the sun before disappearing and allows the night to arrive. Somni, on the other hand, awakens and loses that timidity that characterized him at first. The aluminum, opaque, cold and impenetrable is showing its vulnerability with a slight luminous flash which is born from its interior. That silent sculpture that played with the reflections and the shadows is left behind. At this moment, it is his own intensity, his own soul is appearing from within.
It is twelve o'clock on a spring night. Somni has awakened, he has lost all traces of shyness he had. There is nothing left of that initial static image. Somni is now pure light, a strong and intense light that mixes with the spectators, who dances and has fun with them. Somni could not be more alive, the icy reflections in an industrial warehouse have been replaced by a magical light that floods and envelops the space as if the air itself had density.
In spite of this, and just as with the last rays of the sun, Somni also says goodbye: he has been born and has lived. It is time to disappear until another year, as the Comet periodically shows itself on our firmament. But one thing is obvious, Somni has filled us with his inner light.
