Artist // MEATS Students 2020
Type // Pop-up
Status // Completed
Location // Mies Van Der Rohe Pavilion, Barcelona, ES
Beautiful Failures is a collection of discarded, hand-blown glass pieces gathered by Elisava’s Master's students in Ephemeral Architecture and Temporary Space Design, in collaboration with the Fundació Mies van der Rohe. The project tells a story of construction, destruction, and reconstruction, offering a reflection on the rich history of the Barcelona Pavilion. It decodes and reinterprets the pavilion's architecture through its materiality, providing fresh perspectives on its nature.
MEATS has chosen to work with glass, exploring its alluring yet unpredictable duality. The project reflects not only on the material's potential but also on its influence in shaping contemporary architecture.
Although the pavilion is known for being this polished and perfect historic building in modern architecture, the installation portrays the vulnerability of it by utilizing the most delicate and fragile materials used in it's construction; glass and travertine.
2000 borosilicate glass pieces from craft studios in Barcelona were collected, sorted, and divided into families, based on common mythological characteristics. Seventeen families were formed, each given a strong historical woman's name with a back story related with it's morphology. This is due to how they are shaped, as well as the delicate yet strong nature of the glass; resembling the power reflected in the stories of goddesses, muses and other notable women. Each family was then assigned to a travertine slab that was raised and placed aside, revealing the under space and skeleton of the pavilion.
The partial lifting of the travertine pavement, combined with its relationship to the glass pieces, offers a fresh perspective of the pavilion. Using a grid system similar to archaeology, a calculated excavation uncovers analogies between the two materials. In this cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, every element plays a crucial role— from the Pavilion’s own history, embedded in the travertine, to the layers of life captured in each fragment of glass.
Students MEATS 2019-20: Alexa Nader, Assil Naji, Brentsen Solomon, Dalia Al-Akki, Eirini Sampani, Elena Caubet, Jad Karam, Jana Antoun, Joelle Nader, Juan Arizti, Kuan Yi Wu, Inés Fernández, Marta Borreguero, Mokshuda Narula, Montserrat Sevilla, Selen Kurt, Stephanie Ibrahim, Tanvi Gupta, Tiago Rosado, Tracy Jabbour, and Yunling Jin
Students MEATS 2020-21: Agustina Angelini, Chloe Rood, Dasstan Bissen, Elsa Romero, Gala Knoph, Giulia Tufariello, Irini Vazanellis, John Gillen, Julia Llorens, Liana Kalaitzoglou, Malak Ghemraoui, Momen Nabil, Sasha Zaitceva
Tutors: Roger Paez, Stella Rahola Matutes, and Toni Montes
In collaboration with Fundació Mies Van Der Rohe, and the glass artisans at Barcelona Glass Studio, Alex Añó, VidraFoc and Ferran Collado.
Note: This installation was originally intended to be exhibited in 2020, however due to the outbreak of the corona virus;
it has been postponed to April 2021 with the additional involvement of MEATS 2020-21 students.
it has been postponed to April 2021 with the additional involvement of MEATS 2020-21 students.