For sale: Santiago Cirugeda

Cirugeda spent the last fifteen years developing countless projects in that architectonic branch which, instead of just designing buildings, tries to provide new habitats hoping for a possible social reorganization, inspired by the Archigram model of “Instant City” (1968). At the end of the 90’s he’d already caught media attention by setting up a provisional scaffolding in the front of the building where he lived. Ever after, Cirugeda kept on producing Situaciones Urbanas (Urban Situations): projects that the artist himself describes as “reports aimed at claiming irregularities or transgressions so often committed by public administrations or many private middlemen”. He is constantly driven by the intention of waking up citizen responsibilities before public administrations’ decisions.

In a first area “For Sale” will be the opportunity to see in detail the partial or complete production of shows initially developed for other exhibiting spaces: 3 models, a video and about twenty panels of the Alhóndiga Project (Bilbao 2010); a picture of Maxxi Project (Roma 2010); models for the Málaga 1937 Memorial (ARCO 2007); some documentary material of the project realized for Cajasol (Sevilla 2001) and the complete documentation of the INICIARTE project (Sevilla 2010).

Aiming to ironize on his alternative and activist production, Santiago Cirugeda uses the last part of this show for putting up some of his production for sale. There’ll be exposed constructive elements, street furniture or even some of the proposals used during the illegal actions organized by the Recetas Urbanas group. These can be bought as an artistic item or as an opportunity to realize an action and “feel alternative and alegal”. This selection will include objects such as a streetlamp bench; a normal bench or a bike rack ready to be cemented, or even a detachable crane, essential to build an illegal flat on the terrace roof.

One of the constant features in the artist’s trajectory is his incessant search for a way to recycle spaces and materials, and to take advantage of the gaps in the city-planner regulations. In “For Sale” Santiago Cirugeda wants to recycle his productions in order to emphasize this climate of crisis that spread out affecting every type of market, including the artistic. The point is that everything can be sold or bought, even productions and illegal actions.