Marjetica Potrc

The artist Marjetica Potr? ‘s first solo exhibition in Spain. Marjetica Potr? is a Ljubljana based artist and architect. Her work documents urban spaces and the tensions they engender and has been featured throughout Europe and the United States, including shows at the Sao Paulo Biennial, Sao Paulo, Brazil (1996), Max Protetch Gallery, New York, NY (2002) and the Guggenheim Museum from which she won The Hugo Boss Prize in 2000. The IVAM presents for the first time in Spain the work of the Slovenian artist Marjetica Potr? with one site-specific installation that continue her project of drawing attention to the series of negotiations necessary to survive in the urban environments. In discussing these new project Marjetica Potr? refers to her writings on “Urban Nature and Natural Cities.” As she relates in this text, her pavilion at the IVAM with its favela referencing structure, which provides a haven from the sun, can be seen as “the story of the first favela, which was put up in the shade of ‘favelas,’ as the trees were called then, on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro in 1897 by soldiers whose enemy had gone missing.” This ‘favela’ emphasizes Potr?’s interest in basic structures produced through individual initiative and the pavilion is open to the public as the sun rises and, through the use of solar power, opens its doors and is closed to the public when the sun sets and subsequently closes the doors. The interior of the pavilion the artist is presenting the humanistic character through different elements two large prints at each side of the pavilion and on a central table: in the centre a model of a favela, two prints expressing the different perception of the shantytowns during day and night at each end of the table, a ceramic pot used by the inhabitants to pure oil to the un-welcomed visitors, and a clockwork telephone charge in between as she expressed favelas and shantytowns throughout the world and self-sustainable solutions developed to address the problems of low cost living. In many cases the work of Marjetica Potr? directs attention to the poorest parts of society, making evident that by using creativity and the significant powers of invention inherent to being human we can create richly designed architecture with minimum means.