The Instituto Valeniano de Arte Moderno (IVAM), founded in 1986, is located in the heart of Valencia. It was designed by the architects Emilio Giménez and Carles Salvadores, who imagined a large space that could contain the production of contemporary artists with rotundity.
Walking in, as in a theater play that unveils before us, we find its first act in a great elevation, a staircase that creates a habitable platform at street level. Without an specific use, without a form that follows the use, this multifunctional wide space will be the basis for the first part of our proposal.
The itinerary, so important for the visitors’ experience, must begin at the theoretical bedrock of the museum, its raison d'être, its fundamental purpose, before the contemplation of the artworks. This first act is an uneven space, a place of action for the audience, and a second protagonist: the square, populated, covered, transparent, with shade, with light, with water, wind, life. That is why our priority has been to nourish the life that all those factors bring forth.
At the back side of the IVAM, there is an empty area that occupies 2.800 square meters in which there will be a project of 600 square meters.
To face this challenge, we have learned from previous takes on this small part of Valencia by great architects, such as Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa.
A simple and elegant solution that gives this area the ingredients needed to create that pleasant environment, characteristic of the public space. On top of this, it also adds the temperature and lighting control. Its abstract background permits the contemplation of the artworks from a place recognizable to our memory, in which we feel at home. These different spaces give us the points of reference for our project: square, action, light, temperature control and space.
A new vision, a new place.
The need for such a compact cultural compound in a preexisting and already potent structure does not allow for a monumental ampliation of the museum. The project requires a precise urban surgery and a deep understanding of programme, linked to the space and aware of the different forms of contemporary art: large works, the need for lighting, conveying sounds, scents... anything must be welcomed into our proposal.
Extension Jesús Rafael Soto
We have chosen Venezuelan artist Jesús Soto, one of the greatest exponents of kinetic art. With exhibitions held all over the world at the main art centers, his artform involves a journey, a great in which the viewers enter a “penetrable” and find themselves immersed in a cloud of creativity. Jesús Soto, as a guide for an extension, is a proposal himself.
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