Description of the project by Marcos Corrales Lantero
In the new project of the Elvira González Gallery there has been a desire for renewal, change, evolution with respect to the previous space - which had a more palatial and domestic scale - towards a more public, more open and more generous proposal, with more areas dedicated to exhibitions and more space for the work team. At the same time we did not leave aside the spirit of reaffirmation and continuity of the extraordinary trajectory that this gallery has.
In the space we designed 15 years ago, we managed to give a certain transparency to the administrative area and to the backoffice: they were visible, but they were still behind the exhibition halls. In the new headquarters we have taken a step further by taking all this part - of production, representation, work, illusion and effort - to the entrance, giving it a greater presence since visitors literally have to go through it. Thus the product, the specific purpose that people come looking for, the exhibition halls, are more protected, with other lighting and another character, less drawn.
There is an almost ideological will to give transparency to how one works, to what a gallery is. More so as it is one such as this, which has had several spaces, each time rethinking what a gallery is, how it should be and how it should be represented.
So the challenge has been to know how to transmit that singular character of the gallery owners themselves: their way of being, their way of acting, their way of committing themselves to artists, of handling art, their sense of community in the work area... All this without contaminating the exhibition area, which should not breathe that personality, but the artist expresses himself in it.
How many times are we seeing fabulous, new rooms, where the exhibition spaces end up having the imposition of the character of the whole gallery, or where the character of the work spaces end up imposing themselves on the exhibitions? Or where the architect's work goes too far, where should it be contained?
Someone asked me about the choice of materials. The exterior material is the facade of the historic building itself, fully respected. The access is like a funnel of welcome, where the gallery shows its heart; its material is transparency and generosity. The material of the offices are the drawing and the geometry that outline the furniture that houses the different functions. The material of the rooms is air, which will allow the interrelation between the exhibited works. Two elements unify the whole: the specificity of light and illumination, and a continuous and clear pavement whose intention is to disappear.
In an exhibition hall the most important thing is not the space; it is the work shown. You must work without detail, with other manifestations of architecture, without symbolism or rhetoric, trying to avoid language. The place of language is another. It is about containing the air in order to make the envelope that formalizes it disappear, thus hindering its evocation capacity. A kind of notion of place, without representation.
I would like to express my gratitude: to the gallery owners for their confidence in my work, their illusion of continuity and renewal, and their capacity for critical dialogue; unique qualities for the best possible client. To all the Galería team for their support, to the builder and contractors, to the engineering companies and my collaborators and, in a special way, to Manuel de las Moras, exceptional rigger and unconditional co-driver.
It is fortunate to work with a good client. To the extent that they use the spaces, that they take out their potential, that they are comfortable and happy working there, we will know, with the passage of time, if we have succeeded.
