DESCRIPTION: “Tinglado del cante jondo”.

García Lorca, in his famous play “Así pasen cinco años” urged us to “remember towards the future”. Thus, Federico García Lorca and Manuel de Falla, among others, proposed to promote popular and gypsy singing with the organisation of the Concurso de Cante Jondo in 1922, a meeting of popular music artists in the exceptional setting of the Patio de los Aljibes, in the Alhambra in Granada, which projected them from their radical contemporaneity into the future. 

The documentation for the exhibition brings together photography, painting, publications, musical instruments, dresses and costumes, recordings (video and audio) which were housed on supports designed by MEDIOMUNDO architects.  

The concept developed for the space in the rooms of the Palace of Charles V makes it possible to enjoy these documents by generating an unregulated spatial sequence. The visitor, guided by the continuous rhythm achieved by the sequence of supports, walks through them linearly, according to the proposed theme, or alternating his own reading, depending on the documentation and his interests. 

The construction is presented lightly, like a shed built in wood, in the manner of a back room or behind the scenes shed, without detracting from the elegance, the rhythm and the pregnancy of raw materiality, wood, that mark out the Palacio de Carlos V.  

The curator demanded a recreation in the room of the stage where the competition was held on the night of 10 July: at MEDIOMUNDO we decided to make a “theatre within the theatre”, a scene within a showcase, as a free interpretation of the materials that signified the stage sketched by Zuloaga: cypress garlands, myrtle pots, nea chairs, the flamenco dresses designed and sewn for the occasion, the guitars, the lanterns from Granada, embroidered shawls and hats of those present, under the tree and the full moon of that memorable day.  A “tingaillo” with a stage is designed for these elements, which brings them together with video and audio recordings of contemporary performances.  

The exhibition spaces document the prolific production and influence of the competition, designs and posters of following celebrations and venues, medals, texts, recordings, collected in a newspaper library on display that envelops the visitor with “memories into the future”.

The spaces on the 3rd floor of the Reina Sofia, where MEDIOMUNDO architects already worked on the design of the AUDIOSFERA exhibition. 

Accompanying the production of Pedro G romero for the exhibition of his work at the Reina Sofia Museum develops project as “arrangement” and “editing” of the materials and works of the artist and equipment with which the work is produced. 

In the MNCARS catalogue “The exhibition also includes a project created specifically for the occasion, an installation and scenography conceived as a square and documentary space where different performances will take place as a recovery of texts by Guy Debord, set to music and versioned by the artist (…). Pedro G. Romero interpellates some of the creators who have allowed him to work in the artistic direction of the bailaor Israel Galván, with Niño de Elche, Rocío Márquez or Tomás de Perrate, among others (…) The exhibition is conceived as a device that generates and configures stories through the association of works, documents and materials”.

The concept in this project can be synthesised as “support” or “leaning”: it is built by “leaning” on the existing architecture (according to the structural lean- structural concept for this link: it permits “all possible movements, avoiding excessive stress”.

The objective has been to maintain and conserve the existing architecture, typical of a house with a courtyard “patio” in Seville, and to build an extension for a dwelling and terrace, optimising the materials and prioritising its bioclimatic and therefore sustainable functioning.

The courtyard space is extended beyond the regulations to ensure sunlight and double air circulation, refreshed by the garden of virgin vines, with lemon tree and acanthus in the flowerbed, which together with the original water quelle and the conserved well ensure the necessary coolness. 

The dwelling is built as a light structure of metal pillars and slabs, lean on top of the foundations and load-bearing brick walls.  All interior spaces are open, only glass and some enclosing partitions the wet areas give a privacy gradient to it. The plot perimeter walls are equipped with facilities an installations and they define the domesticity of cooking, resting, working and playing.

Bank of Spain Madrid was first build according the design of architects Sainz de la Lastra and Eduardo de Adaro, commissioned after studying the buildings of other European banks. 1883 the Final project was approved. The first stone was laid on July 4, 1884, and the monumental building was inaugurated in 1891.

The Cibeles Room has a great importance from the origin of the building, usual access at the point of confluence of Calle Alcalá and Pº del Prado, until the beginning of the nineties. Access through chamfer smelting gate is made by two exclusives that open on the sides of the atrium and connect with the side adjoining rooms, since access from the street is not direct to the room, but forms a lobby.

The main area is a high-rise room in which the columns stand out, which is flanked symmetrically by two adjoining rooms that also give Alcalá and Pº del Prado respectively, which expand the space of the central hall to be communicated through broad steps.

The Chamber was renovated in 1992, with the project written by Angela Garcia de Paredes and Ignacio Pedrosa.

In 2018 Bank of Spain commissioned Marta Pelegrin and MEDIOMUNDO arquitectos to lead the Final Design and Building Permits Technical Design for the rehabilitation and retrofitting of Sala Cibeles, C / Alcalá, 48. Paseo del Prado. Madrid. It consist in the Technical development Fit-out works & Shop drawings management, for the retrofitting of the Sala Cibeles to hold the Bank of Spain Art Collection, the premier exhibition “Goya and the Origin of the Bank of Spain Collection” , and to fit it for all possible future exhibitions. This project proposes to recover and optimize the operation of the facilities of lighting, security, detection, signalling, alarm and fire extinguishing elements and existing air conditioning.