GO TO WEBSITE: www.lapistaoptimista.org
La pista optimista 04INTERNATIONAL IDEAS COMPETITION, PLAZA ENCARNACIÓN
This project-manifesto is the response to an International Ideas Competition for a large public space in the historic centre of Seville. Controversies between politicians, archaeologists, shopkeepers and neighbours have ballasted the natural development of a 10,000 m2 privileged urban void which has been closed for more than three decades.
We are in a state of crisis, a latent crisis of Institutional Intelligence due fundamentally to there being too great a discord between some Institutions which have not changed, an “elite” incapable of reform and the aspirations of people whose ways of living have progressed. Our fundamental interest is in replacing contemporary Sesame Street architecture and policies with a real concern for people and their lives, reactivating society’s deteriorated disillusionment. Quoting Bruno Latour, attempting to reconstruct political “assemblées” where technical “assemblage” can make sense. No, peace has not arrived yet, despite what they tell us. Well, now we have an ideology.
We dare to abstract possible answers to this and to another competition in two universes of discourses, the discourse of the ill, but happy and astute Mr. Solution, in which there are only solutions that crush problems, a discourse which will raise questions of quantitative formal structure with a literal submission to the “unreal” real world of the program of bases for the competition, and the candid Problem-Man’s discourse.
Woody Allen said “Of course that is the solution but, remind me... What’s the problem?” A discourse is more interesting if it does not use solutions to conceal problems but sets out both problems and solutions.
Now, what do we suggest?… Well, first freeing the space, constructing a square free of buildings, not doing works with much effect on the environment, “embalming” the archaeological remains, and not only using the economic resources to construct.
We propose what could be a public space for the 21st century: a board which amplifies public action and emotion, a radiant floor of the future, a technical urban floor with public installations, an equipped “pista”*, extreme hardware, and a new Management model, an invented Public Institution. La Pista Optimista*, pure software. This is the project.* stage, pitch, grounds
** the Optimistic StageArchaelogical Protection
Sustainability is talked about a lot, is it not? We believe that exhibition of those archeological remains in that place is not feasible socioeconomically, only politically. Archaeological protection or respect for historic memories does not necessarily imply explicit exhibition of the remains in situ, however much a new fundamentalist army of buro-archaeologists imposes this on us. Very illustrious ladies and gentlemen, heritage is not only the old.
Mortgaging the future to understand the distant past a little better?. It has been practically proven that nothing that those remains can tell us will be as transcendental as the new concept which is proposed: a large “pista” of the future activated by a new institutional management in the heart of Andalusia.
Of course we do not intend to simply bury the remains. We suggest a phase of study, documentation and recording, extraction of the most valuable and significant objects in the site, with the same respect with which we would treat a distinguished corpse. We embalm it and we put it in a “coffin which can be inspected”. There are various substrata of civilizations superimposed on one another. Our civilization puts another not on but over them.
The technical preventive solution for our space would be a 30 mm thick geotextile cover, waterproofing on a layer of sand, on a filling of expanded clay. A radiographic study could be done or if it were extremely necessary, it could be opened.
We are also planning a permanent exhibition, a dispersed open-air museum on the Pista Optimista.What is the “Pista Optimista”?
The Pista Optimista is a new management organism – 24 hrs/day, 365 days/yr created for the activation, stimulation and defense of this new public space. It will guarantee the permanent working of this hyper-equipped and metaprogrammed “open-air-socio-cultural-centre” as a great forum of programmatic and spatial evolution in the heart of Andalusia.
The “optimistas de la pista”* will direct a great continuously-running theatre performance, with the space as the hall and the citizens as actors. They will try to speed up the stages of evolution and reactivation and dynamically optimize the resources and programmes of a “pista” subjected to the complex socioeconomic demands of a complex space-time context.
* the optimists of the stageThe Pista's departments
-The “mimo” (pamper) department. It is like a Microenvironmental and Emotional Management department whose assignment is the continuous writing and recording of the environmental project. Those who comprise the department, the “Urbarmen” constantly make the demanded environmental cocktail.
-The “tedoi” (uget) department. It is a department for the management of the exchange of resources. It manages and maintains the resources which make the concept of the Pista Optimista viable: concessions, the billing of royalties, the renting of spaces, the ethical control of sponsorships. 25% of the budget for the materialization of the Pista Optimista is for the promotion campaign, like with Hollywood films rain magnates who constantly justify their avante-garde pretension, like duchesses, baronesses, “cortingleses” *, with their Foundations, they could be objectives of the “tedoi”.
*from the Corte Inglés department store in Spain
-The “fluflu” department. It is the department for the management of Flow, Fluids and the Floor, of the Hardware. They are the stagehands of the “pista”. They manage and maintain the available installations and supports. The floor of the “pista” is like a technical floor. It has power and electrical points and drains… all over its surface. Musicians plug in their amplifiers. A theatre, market stands or temporary bars are set up. “Tedoi” hires the services and “fluflu” maintains them. This department controls and organizes the activities and infrastructures.
-The “q-tal” (u-ok) department. It conducts communication, promotion of the “pista” and human and mass media relations. It promotes consumption of the city among the citizens. The “kah-rismas” are good-looking and modern. They promote and expand the concept of the new space in permanent connection with the mass media and old institutions. They are the link between local and global realities.
- The “mira” (peep) department. It is the department responsible for the Fostering of Curiosity and Intellectual Activation. It plans artistic activities in a space open to everyone. The members of the department, the “pah-trons”, will administer the means and resources to make every proposal viable. This department is also in charge of the mechanisms of activation of historic memory, managing a permanent exhibition and showing films about Romans, caliphs and bandoleers.
- The “ya” (now) department. A department of Burocratic Acceleration and Deceleration. It will be comprised of lawyers who are experts in metabureaucracy.