Popular Theatre
Yemail Arquitectura – Antonio Yemail, Martín Jiménez
Plaza San Bartolomé – Concéntrico 08
At the heart of the project is the question of how to convene a citizen dialogue around the Plaza de San Bartolomé. A place where so many layers of contained histories can be activated with small gestures of resignification by different groups of neighbours.
In the context of this installation, collective memory is a vehicle to invoke new affections detonated by the transitory mediation of a structure that invites to be appropriated in different ways. As a free-standing object in the space of the square, it has an opaque and translucent presence depending on how you look at it: it is compact enough to provide shade for the attendees of a spontaneous stage that looks over the party wall of the San Bartolomé Church, animated with shadow play and projection. It can also be porous enough to allow itself to be crossed by unsuspecting passers-by crossing the alleyway of Calle Rodríguez Paterna, transformed in a particular way throughout the day by the effect of the light itself.
From the scale to the expression of this wooden scaffolding, they have a playful and festive character that evokes popular celebrations both near and far from the culture of Logroño. Its scenographic character is linked to an old construction method, based on the assembly of basic units of reused wooden frames that are added together to form a structural ensemble of great lightness and consistency. A tradition that speaks of trades that are very much alive in both popular culture and in the tradition of theatrical carpentry.
Yemail Arquitectura
Antonio Yemail is an architect and industrial designer from the Universidad Javeriana and holds a master’s degree in Construction from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Winner of distinctions at the Colombian Architecture Biennial, the Ibero-American Design Biennial, the Quito Architecture Biennial, among others, and referenced by media such as A+U, Harvard Design Magazine, ArchDaily, and Arquitectura Viva, his work seeks to enhance spaces of different scales, taking into account their ecological, material, technological and social diversity.
He does this through Yemail Arquitectura, a studio he founded in 2007, bringing together professionals from various disciplines – from architecture to art – and whose line of experimentation takes into account spatial solutions that prioritise clarity of structure and simplicity of resources. The intellectual and practical openness of this studio has led Yemail to direct projects as diverse as the renovation of heritage housing, the construction of productive housing in rural areas, or the development of installations, galleries and other projects that experiment with the issues of contemporary culture – especially with regard to the representation of the historical memory of his country, the economy of resources, and social diversity.
Precisely because of the above, Yemail has emerged as one of the architects of choice in the proposal of new aesthetics for Colombian cultural infrastructure, acting as a consultant for institutions such as the District Planning Secretariat and the Bernard Van Leer Foundation and being invited to execute everything from museum halls such as a hall for the National Centre of Historical Memory in the department of Chocó, to exhibition pavilions, such as the National Centre of Historical Memory in the department of Chocó, to exhibition pavilions, such as the “Macondo” pavilion at the Bogotá Book Fair, which sought to commemorate the literary universe of Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez.