Re-(t)exHile * Site Specific Tension

 

The textile canopy, suspended between monumental equestrian sculptures and industrial concrete, embodies both shelter and rupture, generating a space of contingent collectivity amidst urban residues.

 

Central to the project is the reuse of second-hand textiles, sourced from Katangua Market, one of Africa’s largest hubs for the circulation of discarded garments from the Global North.  Purchased in bulk bags from the lowest-priced section, the fabrics—subjected to resistance testing—bear the wear of global consumption and the imprint of economic asymmetries. Their transformation into a resilient canopy challenges normative notions of material obsolescence, embedding within the structure a tangible critique of circular economies. While discourses around sustainability often celebrate reuse, Re-(t)exHile underscores the paradoxical violence of material dumping, where “recycling” veils extractive trade practices. The project aligns with Ibrahim Mahama’s jute installations and El Anatsui’s reconstituted bottle-top tapestries, yet departs in its deliberate impermanence, crafting a temporal occupation that resists commodification.  The red line becomes a symbol of marginality, invisibilized yet persistent, evoking questions of exclusion, mobility, and visibility in urban and artistic domains. Its in-betweenness redefines the installation as a space of latency, where meaning flickers between presence and absence, structure and cloth, power and fragility. Set against the monumental backdrop of Tafawa Balewa Square’s equestrian figures and rigid architectural geometries, Re-(t)exHile intervenes with softness, adaptability, and symbolic tension. 

The tensile structure, suspended by three stainless steel cables and securely anchored to the concrete ground, creates spatial dynamism through subtle shifts in height, movement, and light. This ephemeral spatiality contrasts with the square’s permanence and symmetry, recalling Gordon Matta-Clark’s acts of architectural incision, and Do Ho Suh’s fabric architectures that transpose domesticity into public space. As with the 2016 Venice Biennale’s “Reporting from the Front”, which emphasized architecture as social action, this work challenges the authoritative monumentality of the plaza, transforming it into a contested zone of dialogue and occupation. The project’s transdisciplinary approach—merging architectural design, textile knowledge, and performance—reflects a collaborative ethos resonant with the Sharjah Biennial’s emphasis on artistic networks and spatial justice. Beyond its physical form, Re-(t)exHile operates as a platform for collaborative acts, a refuge not only from environmental elements but from dominant narratives of space and belonging. The act of constructing together becomes a political gesture, emphasizing process over product, relation over object. In Re-(t)exHile, the ephemeral canopy is more than an architectural intervention; it is a spatial manifesto against exclusion, waste, and fixity. By embedding hidden messages, engaging with precarious materials, and occupying a charged urban site, the work enacts a critique of global material flows while crafting a space of temporary resistance and care. It challenges us to rethink what architecture can do—to shelter, to question, to reveal—and how artistic interventions might disrupt and reimagine the narratives inscribed in public space.

 

Re-(t)exHile – Refuge 2024, presented at the IV Lagos Biennial of Art and Architecture, was an intersection of ephemeral architecture, urban memory, and material circulation that converges into a powerful spatial critique. Conceived by a transdisciplinary team of artists, architects, and cultural practitioners including Lloveras, Bobrikova, Carmen, Gatti and Badmus. 

The essay explores the significance of relational art as a symbiotic agent emphasizing the potential within the associative structural form of agents contributing to the concept of art 1789.

The concept, rooted in conceptual art and its contemporary extensions in relational forms, holds social and political implications. The ANtiSymposium in Uddebo, Sweden, serves as a backdrop for the development of the art concept within an emerging community. Organizing artists emphasize representation within the local community and natural surroundings, fostering a unique approach. Living together for several days in a rural context allows for spontaneous, unscripted conversations among artists, programmers, critics, architects, curators, and guest directors from diverse countries. Immersed in the natural environment, participants share experiences such as walks in the forest, canoe trips, dives, and saunas, turning coexistence into an intense and flavorful art form. The absence of strict programs allows for personal creative expression, emphasizing the creation of memorable moments without overwhelming structures. The temporary squad project, formed through the intersection of conservative and innovative ideas, manifests as a subtle, almost invisible piece. The body assumes responsibility in maintaining a delicate balance of tones. The potential for new meetings associated with biennials and triennials has already been established. Relational art, as a non-objective participatory form, has become prevalent in legitimate art forums at commercial and institutional levels. The essay recognizes the natural environment's psychological restorative potential, incorporating trees, rivers, and hills. Beyond mere restoration, complex mechanisms related to eudaimonia come into play, enabling conversations rooted in novel transactions. In this transnational art form, traditional currencies of exchange, symbolic and social capitals, take a back seat to the act of sharing itself, making the work untransferable. While acknowledging the possibility of documenting collective work through photography, video, audio, and narratives, the essay delves into the realm of Walter Benjamin's concept of the "copy." It acknowledges the need for major essays to explore this aspect further, recognizing the divergence from the current focus on relational art as a legitimate form in high-stakes scenarios. The text concludes by hinting at future editions in different contexts, involving active agents and new bodies as essential ingredients in this evolving form. 

NATURAL SQUAD SERIES _____ANTISYMPOSIUM 2.0________UDDEBO SWEDEN MMXIX http://antolloveras.blogspot.com/2019/03/uddebo-2019-anti-symposium.html / ANTO LLOVERAS

TRUFFAUT L´ATALANT

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR0QKFTw1Cc&pbjreload=10