devir menor

Devir Menor:
Architecture and Spatial Practice Reviews in Latin America.
Concept and direction: Susan Calo (Research in Philosophy and editor) and Inês Moreira (Architect and curator).
Consultants Board: Paula V. Alvarez (Spain), Luis Santiago Baptista (Portugal), Jose M. Galán (Spain), Jorge Garcia House (Spain); Stephane Damsin (Belgium and Latin America).

Devir Menor is an hybrid research between architecture, critical theory and material practice. Its goal was to diagram critical projects and work processes of architects and collectives based in the context of Ibero-America. I had the pleasure to participate in the board that propossed, discussed and selected the works to be included.

The research was based on the concept "Devir Minor", enunciated through the literature of Kafka by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. The concept refers to the potential of transformation and of opening spaces within a context dominated by subordination to a larger or dominant language. Under the distortive point of view of the dominant as a critical position, Devir Minor delves into the supposedly unitary and cohesive context of Latin America.

Devir Menor explores projects that are sensitive to the specificity of contextual conditions, an that often use tactics which diverge from the traditional methodology of architecture. These projects make a social and economic operative critique, as they are committed with the transformation and revitalization of their context.

Close to cultural practices, the works are also characterized by a particular reconciliation that defies the global and the local; they have a strong spatial component and develop techniques such as materials recycling, the reuse of existing resources or the do-it yourself, among others.

Devir Menor Research is based on a collaborative methodology, and it is brought to reality by the publication of a book and an exhibition.

You can find more information on the project website.