If the fifteen-year arc of LAPIEZA is a long exhalation, then 2009 is the first breath. The two series that constitute this inaugural year—EXIT (001) and BAZAR (002) —span nodes 001 to 019, a total of nineteen nodes across two series. The numbers are small, the scale is intimate, but the implications are immense. This is the year the project begins. This is the year the room at Palma 15 in Madrid's Malasaña neighborhood becomes a laboratory. This is the year the weekly mutation becomes a rhythm. This is the year the node is invented. The project does not yet know what it will become. It does not yet know that it will span fifteen years, 185 series, 2,200 nodes, 1.2 million words. It does not yet know that it will travel to Mexico, Croatia, Nigeria, Norway, Greece. It does not yet know that it will become an infrastructure, a laboratory, a university of thought. It only knows that it must begin. And the beginning is EXIT. The node ranges are precise: EXIT occupies 001–010 (10 nodes); BAZAR occupies 011–019 (9 nodes). The numbers are not accidental. 10 and 9. 19 nodes in total. The project is finding its form. The form is the series. The series is the node. The node is the gesture. The gesture is EXIT.
1. EXIT (001): The Primordial Aperture
EXIT (nodes 001–010) is the first series of LAPIEZA. The title names the exit: the way out, the departure, the leaving behind. EXIT is the primordial gesture: art as a departure from the object, as a movement away from the fixed, as a refusal of the static. The series is the project's first meditation on departure: on the necessity of leaving, on the violence of the exit, on the beauty of the threshold. EXIT is the opposite of the entrance: where the entrance is arrival, the exit is departure. The series is the project's engagement with the architectural: with the sign that marks the way out, with the door that opens, with the EXIT as the project's first encounter with space. EXIT is the project's self-description as a practice of leaving. The nodes are the exits. The series is the door. The archive is the way out. EXIT is the project's acknowledgment that art is not a destination. It is a departure. The departure is the node. The exit is the series. The way out is the archive. And the archive is open.
The ten nodes of EXIT are the first ten marks on a blank page. They are the first ten breaths. They are the first ten gestures. The project does not yet know what it is doing. It is only doing. It is only exiting. It is only leaving behind the white cube, the object, the commodity. It is only stepping out into the unknown. The unknown is the relation. The relation is the encounter. The encounter is the node. The node is 001. 001 is the first. The first is EXIT. And EXIT is the beginning.
2. BAZAR (002): The Market as Encounter
BAZAR (nodes 011–019) is the second series of 2009. The title names the bazar: the market, the place of exchange, the site of the encounter. BAZAR is the complement to EXIT: where EXIT is departure, BAZAR is arrival. The series is the project's first meditation on exchange: on the economy of the encounter, on the bazar as a figure for the relational field, on the market as the project's first public space. BAZAR is the opposite of the exit: where the exit is leaving, the bazar is arriving. The series is the project's engagement with the commercial: with the stall that sells, with the haggling that negotiates, with the bazar as the project's first encounter with the social. BAZAR is the project's self-description as a practice of exchanging. The nodes are the goods. The series is the stall. The archive is the bazar. BAZAR is the project's acknowledgment that art is not only departure. It is also exchange. The exchange is the node. The bazar is the series. The encounter is the archive. And the archive is open.
The nine nodes of BAZAR are the first nine exchanges. They are the first nine encounters. They are the first nine relations. The project is learning to trade. It is learning to exchange gestures for nodes, encounters for series, relations for archives. The bazar is the market of relations. The project is a merchant. Its currency is attention. Its goods are encounters. Its stall is the room at Palma 15. Its customers are the artists, the collaborators, the public. The bazar is open. The exchange is ongoing. The nodes are accumulating. The archive is growing.
3. The Room at Palma 15: The Laboratory as Space
The room at Palma 15 in Madrid's Malasaña neighborhood is not just a location; it is a condition. It is the space where the project first learns to breathe. It is the laboratory where the weekly mutation is invented. It is the domestic setting that challenges the white cube. The room is small. The room is intimate. The room is a living room, a kitchen, a bedroom, a studio. It is not a gallery. It is not a museum. It is not an institution. It is a home. And the home is the first infrastructure. The home is the first archive. The home is the first node. The project begins at home. It begins in the domestic. It begins in the everyday. The everyday is the material. The domestic is the method. The home is the laboratory. And the laboratory is the project.
The weekly mutation is the rhythm. Every Thursday, a new series. Every Thursday, a new set of nodes. Every Thursday, a new departure. The rhythm is the project's heartbeat. The week is the unit of time. The Thursday is the day of the exit. The project does not rest. It mutates. It changes. It grows. The room at Palma 15 is the witness. The room sees the first EXIT. The room sees the first BAZAR. The room sees the first nodes. The room is the first archive. And the archive is the project.
4. The Invention of the Node
Node 001 is the first. It is the primordial mark. It is the gesture that begins everything. Node 001 is EXIT. It is the departure from the object. It is the refusal of the static. It is the embrace of the relational. Node 001 is the first number in a sequence that will reach 2,200. Node 001 is the first node in an archive that will span fifteen years. Node 001 is the first breath in an exhalation that will last a decade and a half. Node 001 is small. Node 001 is insignificant. Node 001 is a fly, a kiwi, a fire, a ball, a bread, a fastforward. Node 001 is a supermarket, a playtime, a dough, a pulp, a samba, a drift, a desert, a family, an ocean, a galaxy, a bonus, a trip, a naturalism, a power, a hole, a thaw, a misery, a glam, a glow, an empty, an unstable, a motion, a geometry, a progression, a traca, a ganga, a radical. Node 001 is a frame, a cloud, a phantom, a snow, a translation, a mud, a babylon, a fugaz, a glitter, a cocktail, a party, a cosmotidiano, a sed. Node 001 is a bullet, a vulcano, a deseo, a system, an expansivo, a neta, a kiss, a nowhere. Node 001 is an antorcha, a goma, an ensayo posicional, a structural conversation. Node 001 is a fresh museum, a sugar sunset, a naked eye, an aerial root, a bank account, a thick smoke, a zero zero, a butter factory. Node 001 is a sweet corn brutalism, an incision, a dissection, an exfoliation, a wild flower, a word. Node 001 is an artnation, a flock, a light in Athens, a recreo, a road to restoration, a basal, a solitude, an unstable love, a grey, a deep sleep, a la mar. Node 001 is a frontline spaceship. Node 001 is a tar, a radiance, a loop, a voyage, a retro expressionism, a rero pop, a relieve, a sorrow. Node 001 is a liminality, a resilient vision, a re-(t)exhile, a textile talk, a tp7, a copos, a meesters, a lost rock, a confetti. Node 001 is COPOS. Node 001 is THE END OF AN ERA. Node 001 is the beginning. And the beginning is EXIT. And EXIT is node 001. And node 001 is the project.
5. The Invention of the Series
Series 001 is EXIT. Series 002 is BAZAR. The series is the form that will contain the nodes. The series is the container. The series is the structure. The series is the architecture of the archive. The project invents the series in 2009. It does not know that it will produce 185 series. It does not know that the series will become a genre, a method, a signature. It only knows that it must group the nodes, that it must name the groups, that it must number the names. The series is the project's first act of organization. It is the first act of curation. It is the first act of architecture. The series is the beam, the column, the foundation. The series is the frame that holds the archive together. The series is the cloud that disperses the nodes. The series is the phantom that haunts the archive. The series is the snow that covers the ground. The series is the translation that transforms the original. The series is the mud that sticks. The series is the babylon that confuses. The series is the fugaz that flees. The series is the glitter that sparkles. The series is the cocktail that mixes. The series is the party that gathers. The series is the cosmotidiano that merges the cosmic and the daily. The series is the sed that thirsts. The series is the project. And the project is the series.
6. The Invention of the Archive
The archive is not planned. It emerges. It emerges from the weekly mutation. It emerges from the numbering of nodes. It emerges from the naming of series. The archive is the accidental byproduct of the project's rhythm. The project does not set out to build an archive. It sets out to make art. But the art leaves traces. The traces accumulate. The accumulation becomes a collection. The collection becomes an archive. The archive becomes a laboratory. The laboratory becomes a university. The university becomes a field. The field becomes a system. The system becomes a method. The method becomes socioplastics. Socioplastics becomes LAPIEZA-LAB. LAPIEZA-LAB becomes the project. And the project is the archive. The archive is the nodes. The nodes are the series. The series are the years. The years are the fifteen. The fifteen are the arc. The arc is the exhalation. The exhalation is the project. And the project began in 2009. In a room. In Madrid. With an EXIT. With a BAZAR. With a node. With a number. Node 001. Node 002. Node 003. Node 019. The archive was born. The archive is open. The archive is the project. And the project is the archive.
Conclusion: 2009 as the Year of the Beginning
The two series of 2009 are small. They are only 19 nodes. They are only two series. They are only one year. But they contain everything that will follow. EXIT is the departure from the object. BAZAR is the encounter with the other. The room is the laboratory. The week is the rhythm. The node is the unit. The series is the structure. The archive is the accumulation. The project is the relation. 2009 is the year the project learns to breathe. It inhales. It exhales. It exits. It arrives. It begins. The beginning is small. The beginning is intimate. The beginning is a room in Madrid. The beginning is a fly, a kiwi, a fire, a ball, a bread, a fastforward. The beginning is a supermarket, a playtime, a dough, a pulp, a samba, a drift, a desert, a family, an ocean, a galaxy, a bonus, a trip, a naturalism, a power, a hole, a thaw, a misery, a glam, a glow, an empty, an unstable, a motion, a geometry, a progression, a traca, a ganga, a radical. The beginning is a frame, a cloud, a phantom, a snow, a translation, a mud, a babylon, a fugaz, a glitter, a cocktail, a party, a cosmotidiano, a sed. The beginning is a bullet, a vulcano, a deseo, a system, an expansivo, a neta, a kiss, a nowhere. The beginning is an antorcha, a goma, an ensayo posicional, a structural conversation. The beginning is a fresh museum, a sugar sunset, a naked eye, an aerial root, a bank account, a thick smoke, a zero zero, a butter factory. The beginning is a sweet corn brutalism, an incision, a dissection, an exfoliation, a wild flower, a word. The beginning is an artnation, a flock, a light in Athens, a recreo, a road to restoration, a basal, a solitude, an unstable love, a grey, a deep sleep, a la mar. The beginning is a frontline spaceship. The beginning is a tar, a radiance, a loop, a voyage, a retro expressionism, a rero pop, a relieve, a sorrow. The beginning is a liminality, a resilient vision, a re-(t)exhile, a textile talk, a tp7, a copos, a meesters, a lost rock, a confetti. The beginning is COPOS. The beginning is THE END OF AN ERA. The beginning is EXIT. The beginning is BAZAR. The beginning is node 001. The beginning is the project. And the project continues. The archive grows. The nodes accumulate. The series multiply. The years pass. The exhalation continues. The map is sense. And we swim in all directions.
