by: Jacqueline Pezzillo Assoc. AIA LEED AP
Event: A City of One’s Own: Architecture and Urbanism as Cultural Heritage in Barcelona
Location: Center for Architecture, 11.02.09
Speakers: Eulàlia Bosch — Curator & Program Designer, Education and the Arts
Organizer: AIANY; The Catalan Center at New York University, an affiliate of the Institut Ramon Llull
Image from www.lapedreraeducacio.org, a website dedicated to Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Milà.
Courtesy www.lapedreraeducacio.org
With an ardent aptitude for educational outreach, Eulàlia Bosch has centered her career as philosopher, curator, writer, and web designer on the integration of didactics in contemporary art, digital media, and urban studies. Comparing the process of education to bovine rumination, Bosch believes the collection of knowledge in the cultural “fields” of a city is best reflected upon in schools, equated with “barns,” and then transformed into academic nourishment through dialogue. Bosch’s work seeks to reinvent the traditional learning environment and blurs the boundaries of education, infusing urban life with the public exchange of information.
In collaboration with Ramon Espelt, Bosch is responsible for educational websites that look at cultural centers in Barcelona under multiple lenses. A website dedicated to Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Milà, www.lapedreraeducacio.org, explores the building from every angle, providing literary, film, and graphic references; perspectives of artists, inhabitants, and neighbors on the space; as well as history, architectural details, and visual metaphors. Most importantly, the website serves as an interactive platform to contribute, collect, and reflect on information. A multi-faceted resource unique to other institutional websites, the educational component of Bosch and Espelt’s creation is limitless and self-renewing.
According to Bosch, a city becomes a city of one’s own when it is recognizable in its details. Through her work, Bosch is achieving this for future generations by creating cultural grazing lands, both digital and physical, that embody Barcelona and open new public perspectives on its cultural landscape.
Jacqueline Pezzillo, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP is the communications manager at Davis Brody Bond Aedas and a regular contributor to e-Oculus.