The Plaza as a Place

The Plaza as a Place

Macarena Magaña Villar (Critical Studies, Sandberg Instituut) and Lucía del Valle Ramirez (Photography, Gerrit Rietveld Academie) were selected for the Open Call by Public & Projects Rietveld to take over the Glass Pavilion of the Rietveld Academie.

Their project "The Plaza as a Place" departs from the idea of viewing the Rietveld and the Sandberg as a neighbourhood with its streets, corners, nooks, buildings and gardens. They will transform the Pavilion space into a temporary neighbourhood community center which will be in dialogue with its surrounding and activated by its inhabitants.

There will be three public programme events. For the first one, an Open Call is shared for which students and staff can send a a fragment of a text that reflect on the street, the plaza, or the power of public space as a meeting place for inhabitants.  Send the text and its translation to theplazaasaplace@gmail.com. The text should be in its original language with a translation, written by a renowned author who originally writes in that language, maximum one page of the original text.  (deadline 5th of March)

The plaza as a literary place/La plaza como espacio literario

7 March, 17:00–18:30 – An evening of readings in mother language at the pavilion. More information in the Open Call.

The plaza as a place for urban protest/La plaza como Lugar de protesta Urbana

13 March, 18:00–19:00 – Screenings in the plaza, showing the protest and community uses of squares and public spaces.

The plaza as a place of celebration/La plaza como lugar de celebración

14 March, 17:00–21:00 – A “verbena” a celebration combining music, food, and dancing in the open air, celebrating coming together of the community and the closing of the project.