Macarena Magaña Villar (Critical Studies, Sandberg Instituut) and Lucía del Valle Ramirez (Photography, Gerrit Rietveld Academie) were selected through the Open Call by Public & Projects to take over the Pavilion of the Rietveld Academie in March 2025.
Their project "The Plaza as a Place" departed from the idea of viewing the Rietveld and the Sandberg as a neighbourhood with its streets, corners, nooks, buildings and gardens. They transformed the Pavilion space into a temporary neighbourhood community center which was in dialogue with its surrounding and activated by its inhabitants.
There were three public programme events. For the first one, an Open Call was shared for which students and staff could 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.
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.
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.
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.
Photos by Javier Mars