LIGA 16: Lab.Pro.Fab. Alejandro Haiek (Ven)

Paperwork

LIGA 16: Lab.Pro.Fab. Alejandro Haiek (Ven)

Paperwork

LIGA 16: Lab.Pro.Fab. Alejandro Haiek
Paperwork
November 2014 – February 2015

As with each of his projects, Alejandro Haiek turns his critical eye upon everyday practices of architecture and construction. Here, it is the bureaucratic processes, regulations, paperwork, permits and the arsenal of copies generated through this administrative window that become the focus of investigation for the Venezuelan architect. The reconstruction of the gallery using complex paper surfaces serves to denounce the hypocrisy and opportunism of “greenwashing,” the wastage of paper and the legislative logic that simply converts a raw material into a “dead” archive. The geometries of calculator paper that wrap the space in a matrix of folds display a professional practice driven above all by the rationale of billing, payment and finances.

The paper patterns are stretched between wooden frames and activated by the lighting and ventilation, which is controlled by interactive sensors. For the architect, these are manufacturing tests, experiments and prototypes where local knowledge, craftwork and traditional assemblages are linked with automatization, interactive systems and digital design processes. In this way, Haiek relates local skills with the global ecosystem, combining obsolete resources with applied technology. With the grace and ingenuity of an episode of “The Office,” the installation subverts the universe of the professional architect and transforms its everyday components—rolls of calculator paper, binder clips, paperclips or computer fans—into tools for poetry, criticism and resistance.

 

Photography: Luis Gallardo

Recycling and Assembling by Josep María Montaner

https://labprofab.org/