A Third of life

Suomi-Koivisto & IC-98
Calle Marqués de San Nicolás
2025

The pavilion ”A Third of Life” by IC-98 and Suomi/Koivisto Architects has a two-fold function: 1) to provide a secret but open drought-resistant garden for local human and non-human residents in the historical centre, which suffers from heat-island phenomenon; 2) to act as a stage for a travelling incubation temple, which aims to overcome the political polarisation and detachement from natural entanglements through a ritual of shared sleep and dreams. Sleeping in a group and discussing the dreams afterwards takes inspiration from the institution of asklepieia of ancient Greco-Roman world and the revolutionary Surrealist movements of the early 20th century. The idea is to find new common denominators from the obscure and non-dualistic intersection of individual and collective unconscious.

During the day, the pavilion presents the social sleeping ritual through a spatial installation of all necessary elements required to go through this experimental progression: wall hangings, symbolic objects, custom-made pottery, beds and a lullaby, accompanied by a small booklet outlining the concept and working as a guide to recreate the ritual anywhere. One festival night is dedicated for the enactment of this sleeping and dreaming session. A group of people will go through the ritual, starting in the evening and concluding the following morning.

The ritual comprises of a guided progression through the planted and themed rooms of the roofless, abandoned townhouse. Through poppies and water, meditating the hot iron heart of our Planet, feeling the connection to the Earth and soil, thinking about the Earthworm – a kind of a god the temple – and finally arriving into the collective sleeping and dreaming chamber, filled with sleep-inducing herbs. There, after the introductions, a planting ritual and evening tea, participants take to their beds and listen to the troubadour sing the Lullaby. The following morning starts with a cadavre exquis workshop – a collective drawing session – followed by a open discussion about previous night’s dreams.