Bestiary

It seems every good illustration is the image of a momentary conviction. Whatever the technique used -drawings, models, photographs- the effect on the surrounding area is civilising. To illustrate is to civilise, it is to construct the imaginary from a fully unattainable state. A good illustration is always the diffuse multiplication of the memory of an object.
The exhibition entitled Bestiary at the Toto Gallery MA is a collection of these moments of conviction present in my work. The name refers to medieval bestiaries, which were illustrated books, true compendiums of fantastic beasts drawn from popular imagination and thus impossible to simply “spot” in the real world.
Our Bestiary is a family of models built in wood by the architect Alejandro Lüer based on projects designed in my studio over the last 6 years.
Some of the ones shown here began life as illustrations of texts that I love. They were made as an exercise in interpretation, for no definite reason and without the intention that they should serve some purpose. Coincidence has led to some of them being built years later and some others are on their way to being built.
These models of interpretation, actual uncertain and formal tests, have been the starting point for new projects. Others have formed part of a final presentation shown to clients. The extremes of the process a project follows, the beginning and the end, are treated with the same precision and neatness in these wooden models, simply because we believe that each of them presents an exact conviction about an architecture project.