Feria Concreta
Biennale di Architettura di Venezia
“Feria Concreta/Fair Concrete” explored the impulse and impact of dictator Rafael Trujillo’s 1955 “Fair of Peace and Fraternity of the Free World” - curated by the Laboratorio de Arquitectura Dominicana (LAD) in collaboration with OMA - NY.
Location
Santo Domingo/Venice
Category
Interior Design, Exhibition Design, Research
Client
Biennale di Architettura di Venezia
Year
2014
Role
Research, Content Production, Design, Strategic Planning and Fundraising, PR.
+ Info
Collaboration between Laboratorio de Arquitectura Dominicana and OMA - NY. Photography by Giulio Boem.
The exhibition examined how the fairgrounds have evolved alongside the multiple uses that are currently given to the structures. It also explored the history of Santo Domingo and how, with Trujillo, concrete becomes the D.R’s nation building material of choice and with an idea of progress and modernity.
The fairgrounds represent architectural, social, and cultural characteristics that are distinctly Dominican.
The first phase of the project consisted of an intensive period of historical research, image cataloging, and image selection. The second phase encompassed the exhibition design and funding campaign. The third and final phase covered the actual construction of the pavilion in Venice. Selected works from the research were exhibited in MoMA’s exhibition “Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955-1980”. This was the first time architecture projects from the Dominican Republic were exhibited there.
