Martín Chambi, Partial view of the King’s Group showing the courtyard, Macchu Picchu, Peru, 1927, Gelatin silver print, 23.7 x 17.7 cm, CCA Collection © Archivo Fotografico Martín Chambi.
Álvaro Siza, Sketch from notebook #399, Macchu Picchu, Peru, 1995. Ink on paper, 29.7 x 21 cm, © Álvaro Siza, Architect.
Álvaro Siza, Sketch from notebook #399, Macchu Picchu, Peru, 1995, Ink on paper, 29.7 x 21 cm, © Álvaro Siza, Architect.
Álvaro Siza, Sketch from notebook #399, Macchu Picchu, Peru, 1995, Ink on paper, 29.7 x 21 cm, © Álvaro Siza, Architect. |
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Canadian Centre
for Architecture
Octagonal Gallery
Alturas de Macchu Picchu:
Martín Chambi –
Álvaro Siza at work
January 26-April 22, 2012
Alturas de Macchu Picchu: Martín Chambi – Álvaro Siza at work presents sketches from Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza’s 1995 trip to Macchu Picchu alongside 1920s photographs from the CCA Collection by Peruvian photographer Martín Chambi. The dialogue between these materials explores the appropriation of reality by two different authors. Supplemented by documentation of Siza’s landmark social housing project in Évora, Portugal, the exhibition furthermore investigates the Pritzker Prize architect’s use of sketching both to record reality and as a design tool.
Álvaro Siza and Martín Chambi visited Macchu Picchu more than a half century apart from each other, but with a similar approach of active participation. Siza’s voyage to Peru in 1995 was undertaken with a single, inexpensive notebook and a few books of poetry. While not related to any particular professional activity, the images he created would evidence an attention to material culture that has characterized his architectural work since the 1950s. Chambi, on the other hand, photographed Macchu Picchu on several trips between 1927 and 1950, often carrying his photographic equipment by donkey. Chambi’s landscapes, a selection of which are part of the CCA Collection, would become the defining postcard images of Macchu Picchu. However, they also reappropriated the ancient Inca site, affirming the ownership of indigenous Peruvians in the face of Western claims.
A third component of the exhibition is documentation of Álvaro Siza’s Quinta da Malagueira social housing complex on the outskirts of Évora, Portugal. The project, started in 1977, was the first for which Siza used the simple black notebooks that he continues to sketch in to this day. The housing at Quinta da Malagueira displays typological features and an interest in the vernacular reminiscent of what Siza later draws at Macchu Picchu. Selected photographs by Gabriele Basilico, Giovanni Chiaramonte, Roberto Collová and Jean-Louis Schoellkopf, depict the complex through the lens of contemporary observers — a final representational layer.
The images shown in the exhibition are, on one hand, accurate site documentations. However, they are nonetheless filtered through the aesthetic and political inclinations of their creators. Ultimately, both Siza and Chambi present Macchu Picchu as a landscape of their invention.
“Representation becomes a tool for the construction of history. Through his lens, Chambi builds a position of strength for the Quechua-speaking minority. Through his sketches, Siza confirms the intuitions and choices made in his architectural projects,” says Fabrizio Gallanti, Associate Director of Programs at the CCA and curator of the exhibition.
Alturas de Macchu Picchu continues an ongoing investigation into the conception and representation of architecture. Initiated with the Devices of Design colloquium (2004), this research was pursued through the exhibition Palladio at Work (2011). CCA Executive Director and Chief Curator Mirko Zardini states, “At the CCA, we are interested in the working process, and the way that architectural ideas are shaped, as well as the relationship of architecture with cultural, political and social environments.”
The exhibition displays35 sketches by Álvaro Siza, and includes the original notebook #399 from his travels to Macchu Picchu in 1995. The architect’s social housing complex at Évora, developed using sketching as a primary design tool, is presented through original documents from Siza’s office along with photographs by Gabriele Basilico, Giovanni Chiaramonte, Roberto Collová and Jean-Louis Schoellkopf. A selection of prints from Martín Chambi’s 1927 photographic series held in the CCA Collection are displayed as well as his panorama from a 1940 trip.
The exhibition is complemented by a selection of poetry books suggested by Álvaro Siza. Included is Pablo Neruda’s Alturas de Macchu Picchu, the second part of his Canto General of 1945, from which the exhibition borrows its name.
Martín Chambi (Coaza, Peru 1891-Cuzco, Peru 1973) was born into a Quechua-speaking peasant family and learned photography in his youth. In 1908, he apprenticed in the studio of Max T. Vargas in Arequipa and in 1923 established his own studio in Cuzco, becoming a favoured commercial photographer for the local élite. Chambi’s documentation of pre-Hispanic Andean cultures were a key component of Cuzco’s Indigenista movement, which sought to recover an autonomous aesthetic and expressive language for the regional population.
Álvaro Siza (Matosinhos, Portugal 1933-) emerged in the late 1950s as a leading protagonist of the Escola do Porto, a group of architects attempting to reconcile the experimentations of modern architecture with the conditions of production in Portugal, at that time under dictatorial rule. After the return to democracy in 1974, Siza created a significant series of social housing interventions and smaller private commissions. The scope of his work soon became international, with later designs realized in Germany, Spain, Holland, Italy, Japan, Brazil and South Korea, as well as global recognition culminating in his winning of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1992.
Curator Fabrizio Gallanti is Associate Director, Programs at the CCA. Gallanti trained as an architect at the University of Genoa, Italy and received his doctoral degree in architectural design from the Politecnico di Torino. He has worked in professional partnership with Francisca Insulza and was a founding member of Gruppo A12, a Genoa- and Milan-based collective dedicated to architectural design and art. Gallanti has practiced architecture in Santiago, Chile, and taught architectural design at the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Santiago and the Politecnico di Milano in Piacenza, Italy. Architecture consultant to the editor in chief of Abitare magazine between 2007-2011, Gallanti was also editor of the Abitare website. His writings have appeared in magazines including 32, A+U, Abitare, Domus and Il giornale dell’architettura. Gallanti curated the Triennale di Milano lecture series Multiplicity, a Collection of Sites, 1999-2000, the Festival Urbania in Bologna, 2009, and the international seminar ArchiLiFe, Le LiFE in Saint Nazaire, 2010.
The exhibition concept and design was developed by the CCA curatorial team. Graphic design was created by Montréal designer Tamzyn Berman of Atelier Pastille Rose.
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