
CANTE JONDO
TECHNICAL DATA
ARCHITECTS AUTHORS:
MEDIOMUNDO ARQUITECTOS. M.Pelegrín+ F.Pérez;
PROJECT: Palace of Charles V. The Alhambra, Granada. Exhibition Design, Devices, Lighting and Scenography of the “Exhibition commemorating the Centenary of the Cante Jondo Competition, Granada”.
PROGRAMME: Design of exhibition spaces, devices, scenography and lighting.
PLACE: Palace of Carlos V. The Alhambra, Granada.
DATE: 2022
Surface area: 600m2
Promoter: Patronato de la Alhambra. Andalusian Regional Government. Department of Culture.
Collaborations: Architect Fabio Orizia. Architect. Jose Carlos Castro.
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”.