ignacio g. galán
[ igg - office for architecture ]

New York / Madrid
igg@ignaciogalan.com
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Cinecitta Occupata Gallery

Photo by Miguel de Guzman, imagensubliminal.com

Photo by Begoña Zubero

Photo by Miguel de Guzman, imagensubliminal.com

Photo by Miguel de Guzman, imagensubliminal.com

Photo by Miguel de Guzman, imagensubliminal.com

Photo by Miguel de Guzman, imagensubliminal.com

Photo by Miguel de Guzman, imagensubliminal.com

Photo by Miguel de Guzman, imagensubliminal.com

Photo by Begoña Zubero

Curation of an installation on the film studios Cinecittà, within the section Monditalia at the 14 International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (by invitation of the general curator of Rem Koolhaas)

Corderie dell'Arsenale, Venice (Italy) / June 7 - November 23, 2014

The studio complex Cinecittà, known as Italy's "factory of images," manufactures realities for film and television and circulates them as fictions gathering together different constituencies. At the same time, these fictions are housed in a built structure that, though remaining invisible behind them, occupies more than 500.000 sqm within the city of Rome and is submitted to its changing logics throughout history, its legal frameworks and associated processes of land speculation. Access to this enclave is a precious (and restricted) asset, since its activities congregate an influential set of actors playing roles not only in film, but in broader cultural and economic networks.

The installation Cinecittà Occupata borrows its name from the 2012 occupation of the famous roman film studios, by workers in protest against their recent business strategies, which workers saw as dismissing their expertise and turning Cinecittà's interests away from film and toward projects that depend on the entanglement of image production with the entertainment and tourism industries. As squatters, they are the most recent occupants of the studios, "Cinecittà okkupata."

Beyond this polemic, Cinecittá Occupata showcases the studios' different kinds of occupations—considering both the fictional spaces that gather us, and the spaces of fiction production—and reflects on Cinecittà as a laboratory for the scrutiny of post-industrial societies—one that has been continuously negotiated and contested.

See more in www.cinecittaoccupata.com

Photo by Miguel de Guzman, imagensubliminal.com

[image gallery]

Design and research: Ignacio G. Galán

Ignacio G. Galán and Jose Ahedo, design and construction; Cyrus Penarroyo, graphic design;  Jose Meza, diagrams; Jacob Moore, text editor; Juan Rey, structures; Bat Spain, textiles; Luis Mesejo, web design. With video by Hugo Kenzo, drawings by Thomas Kelley and photographs by Begoña Zubero.

Special thanks to Lucia Allais,  Katy Barkan, Sara Martin, Marina Otero, Javier Rubin, Andrea Sabbadini, Azzurra Stilo, Lèa-Catherine Szacka, Fondo Belloni Peressutti, and Cinecittá World.

Supporters: Consejería Cultural Embajada de España en Roma (AECID), AC/E, www.batspain.com, Serge Ferrari, Elise Jaffe+Jeffrey Brown

Acordeón Office Sidebar

  • About Open or Close

    [igg - office for architecture] is a design and research office based in New York City and led by Ignacio G. Galán, PhD. The work of the office focuses on architecture's role in the articulation of society through design projects, research, and pedagogical endeavours. The designs of the office have been awarded in competitions including the First Prize for the New Velodrome in Medellín and are part of the permanent collection of the Pompidou Center. The office was a finalist to the 2014 Iakov Chernikhov Prize as a result of its contributions to design culture. 

    The work of the office unfolds through diverse media and platforms and is continuously informed by different kinds of conversations and collaborations. Galán's research has led to the production of several publications and exhibitions including the installation Cinecittá Occupata for the 2014 Venice Biennale by invitation of the general curator Rem Koolhaas. Together with the After Belonging Agency, Galán was the Chief Curator of the 2016 Oslo Architecture Triennale (Graham Foundation Grant 2015). He previously collaborated in the research project Radical Pedagogies, led by Beatriz Colomina at Princeton SOA, and has co-curated its exhibition at the 2013 Lisbon Architecture Triennale and at the 2014 Venice Biennale, where it was awarded a Special Mention of the Jury. 

    Galán studied Architecture at ETSAMadrid and TUDelft, he graduated as a Fulbright Scholar from the MArchII program at Harvard GSD, and has a PhD in Architecture History and Theory of Architecture from Princeton. He has been a Fellow at the Spanish Academy in Rome. He is Term Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture at Barnard+Columbia Colleges and has taught studios and seminars at Columbia GSAPP and PennDesign among others.

  • Statement Open or Close

    We understand architecture as a key agent participating in the articulation of society. 

    We explore the ways in which architecture contributes to the definition of new ways of being together.

    We are concerned with architecture's relation to cultural transfers, material networks, and diverse forms of population transience in a global context. The relation of these forms of circulation challenge our understanding of architecture (conventionally associated with control, enclosure, permanence, and stability), requires new imaginations for our ways of being together and consequently remains a realm for further inquiry and intervention.

    We are additionally interested in the objects, media technologies, and institutions transforming architecture's individual occupations, its collective operations, and its diverse types of mobilization. 

    These emphases lead the work of the office and continuously challenge our methods of analysis and our design practice.