Museums Consortium selects Resident Culture projects in Alicante
In Alicante, a bold artistic inquiry emerged from Grandeza Studio as part of an ambitious program tied to the Venice Architecture Biennale offer for 2023. The initiative, titled Pilbara Interregnum: Seven Political Allegories, grew out of a collaboration with the Grandeza Studio team and received support from the Valencia Community Museums Consortium. The project was presented within the Las Cigarreras cultural center as a centerpiece of Cultura Resident, a program designed to foster creative experimentation while connecting local decisions to global conversations about climate and urban life. The work was supported by a wide network of cultural partners that helped move it from concept to production.
At the heart of the venture was a multidisciplinary approach that combined architectural research with political imagination. The project was steered by Amaia Sanchez Velasco, Jorge Valiente Oriol, and Gonzalo Valiente Oriol, whose team pursued a residency model that encouraged experimentation with form, space, and narrative. The aim was to illuminate how climate emergencies and economic geopolitics intersect in settings far from the usual centers of power, translating local realities into a broader dialogue about planetary stewardship. The residency was part of the Inhabited Culture program, which seeks to fuse cultural production with community-scale impact.
The Grandeza Studio research initiative began its journey in 2021, taking shape across continents and institutions. During its implementation, it benefited from financial and logistical backing provided by the Museums Consortium. In addition, academic partners supported the project, including universities in Spain, Australia, and beyond. The collaboration connected the University of Alicante, the Sydney University of Technology, Andrés Bello University through the Creative Campus network, and the University of Sydney, creating a transregional framework for exchange and knowledge building that informed both the theoretical and practical aspects of the work.
Residents and partners reflect on the production and impact of the project
During the launch and subsequent developments, gratitude was extended to the entire consortium and the partner networks for supplying the essential resources needed to reach the final production phase. The Cultura Resident program, in particular, was highlighted as crucial to enabling the project to achieve the high standards expected at a Venice Architecture Biennale context. The feedback emphasized that stable funding mechanisms for culture and the arts are vital for democracy and for sustaining projects that might otherwise face instability. The Grandeza Studio team noted that the residency framework provided the developmental depth required to meet the expectations of an international architectural showcase.
In a broader reflection on the project, José Luis Pérez Pont, the director of the Museums Consortium, commented on the significance of Pilbara Interregnum as a testament to the quality of proposals within the cultural program. He noted that the work speaks to climate emergency concerns as well as economic and geopolitical questions, offering a local-to-global view that resonates with diverse situations affecting humanity. This perspective reinforces the value of art and architecture as tools for understanding and addressing urgent world problems, while also spotlighting the need for continued support of culturally informed residencies that nurture critical voices.
about work
Pilbara sits as a vast, arid expanse in Western Australia, among the driest landscapes on the planet and remote from major urban centers. The region has experienced centuries of colonial exploitation and intense extraction, with mining activity shaping its surface, ecosystems, and communities. Persistent social challenges, including underdevelopment, high rates of alcoholism, violence, and discrimination, have marked the area despite its mineral wealth. The site has become a focal point in discussions about how resources are mobilized and who bears the costs of extraction.
Today, large-scale mining interests converge with new investors seeking lithium and other rare minerals. The Pilbara also faces extreme solar radiation, strong coastal winds, and strategic access to the Indian Ocean, making it a pivotal locale in the ongoing global energy transition. The project adopts a critical stance toward the normalization of past and present violence and challenges the idea that such dynamics will inevitably continue. Pilbara Interregnum presents seven unresolved land scenarios as allegorical cases to question the dominant energy paradigm and its colonial and capitalist underpinnings. Through a blend of theory-fiction and speculative fabrication, the work maps the potential disruptions to the status quo and invites audiences to rethink future energy geopolitics.
The project was developed with contributions from a diverse group of collaborators, including Caitlin Condon, Laura Domínguez Valdivieso, James Feng, Jordi Guijarro Contreras, and Raquel Vázquez Romero. The proposal for the exhibition comprises a regional model of the affected landscape, complemented by seven allegorical projects at the intersection of politics and architectural imagination. An accompanying three-channel audiovisual narrative uses the regional model as a storytelling and landscape tool to present the seven disputes in the form of political allegories, linking place, policy, and possibility in a cohesive linear and cinematic experience.