The results of the Laboratorio Cultural Sala Mendoza Award competition for young curators were recently announced. Directed by young professionals under the age of 35, the competition required participants to send their exhibition projects with the following information: theme, artists, selection of works, envisioned museographic design, plans, exhibition room texts, etc. The winner of the sole award was Marisela Chivico, a museologist who graduated from the Universidad José María Vargas with the project Monumentos Arquitectónicos (Architectural Monuments), recently inaugurated at the Sala 2 of the gallery. Formed by Sandra Pinardi, Héctor Fuenmayor and Contanza De Rogatis, the jury unanimously decided to grant the award to Chivico.
The project by Chivico consisted of creating a historical revision of the architectural modernity in Caracas through the gaze of five Venezuelan contemporary artists. The constructions that were selected are emblems of the development process experienced between 1948 and 1958 in Venezuela during the government of Marco Pérez-Jiménez. It was under this dictatorial and repressive regime that the country experienced a golden era in the fields of architecture, engineering and urbanism. Pérez-Jiménez made the education of professionals a priority. Many of these professionals left the country to learn at the best international schools of architecture and engineering. Likewise, the dictator favored the visits of important figures in those fields who were invited to participate in several highly important projects.
The project presented by Marisela Chivico is part of a larger research. On this occasion, the curator exhibited images of five emblematic buildings seen from the perspective of five young guest artists. The "El Silencio" Twin Towers (1948), designed by architects Cipriano Domínguez, Tony Manrique De Lara and José Joaquín Álvarez, are shown upside-down by Muu Blanco. The image represents a critical vision of a "submerged" modernity. "El Helicoide" (1955), a helical architectural monument—never completed as result of the political environment—designed by Jorge Romero-Gutierrez, Dirk Bornhost and Pedro Neuberguer, was the subject of inspiration for a drawing by Hayfer Brea. Instead of the recreational and cultural center it was supposed to become, the building is currently the country's political prison. On the other hand, the patience involved in climbing at the speed of a horse cart the streets of "23 de Enero"—a working class neighborhood in Caracas—was recorded on video by artist Iván Candeo. The objective was to arrive to the residential blocks (1951) designed by Carlos Raúl Villanueva. The image of the Aula Magna (1952) of Ciudad Universitaria—also created by Villanueva—is the subject of thorough research in the work by Javier León who, inspired by Alexander Calder's Acoustic Clouds (1953), develops an interesting formal and historic inquiry or this monumental work by the US artist within the context of Villanueva's proposal. Conversely, Amanda Granado bases her work on the image of the Hotel Humboldt (1956) designed by Tomás José Sanabria. Located at the top of El Ávila Mountain, the building represents one of the most ambitious projects developed during the Pérez-Jiménez era. Never open to the public, this architectural proposal became the symbol of an interrupted modernity.
With this project Chivico wants to raise awareness about "the architectural creation as generator of social dynamics."