Sound performance at the Mies van der Rohe Awards 2024_2024.05.14
Architecture as a musical instrument:
“The Barcelona Pavilion” 1929, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich
Gisle Nataas (Electronic and live sampling)
Torgeir Wergeland Sørbye (trumpet)
Silvia Cabrera (performance)
Vanessa Pey (video).
Thanks to La Fundació Mies van der Rohe for the invitation to play in the beautiful and iconic Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona and for a fantastic night, Tuesday 14. may 2024.
From the invitation: As director of programs of Fundació Mies van der Rohe (public body of the Barcelona City Council) and project manager of the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture / Mies van der Rohe Awards (EUmies Awards), I am pleased to inform you that we have invited Mr. Gisle Nataas to work on the design and production of a spatial sound installation in the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona for the EUmies Awards 2024 granting ceremony.
The Fundació Mies van der Rohe was set up in 1983 by the Barcelona City Hall with the initial purpose of reconstructing the German Pavilion, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich for the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition. Besides conserving and disseminating knowledge about the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion, the Fundació today also fosters debate on and awareness of themes related to contemporary architecture and urban planning, as well as encouraging studies on the work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Lilly Reich and on the Modern Movement. In accordance with these objectives, the Fundació organises awards, congresses, conferences, exhibitions, workshops and installations.
Outstanding among these activities is the organisation, jointly with the European Commission, of the EUmies Awards, the most prestigious of all European architecture prizes. We are pleased to include the work of Gisle Nataas in the EUmies Awards program, as we believe his work strongly conveys and represents the award’s values. We believe the topics he addresses through his artwork, will not only make an important contribution to the European architectural discourse but will create a space for the development and critique of architecture and design.
We are enthusiastic to collaborate with Gisle Nataas and support the development of his work. We further support any funding applications through which he seeks to realise the project.
«The Barcelona Pavilion was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich as the German Pavilion for the Barcelona International Exhibition, held on Montjuïc. The Barcelona Pavilion, an emblematic work of the Modern Movement, has been exhaustively studied and interpreted as well as having inspired the oeuvre of several generations of architects. It was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich as the German national pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition. Built from glass, steel and different kinds of marble, the Pavilion was conceived to accommodate the official reception presided over by Kings of Spain Alfonso XIII and Victoria Eugenia along with the German authorities».
