Arquitectura expandida, a Colombian social collective, has created a cinema for young people on the outskirts of Bogotá, now on show at the Design museum in London.
A space is created not only in a physical sense but also in a social one. This is the philosophy of Arquitectura expandida, a collective of activist architects that works in close contact with communities in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods of the Colombian capital Bogotá, founded in 2010 by architects Ana Ortego and Harold Guyaux. Among its projects is Potocine, selected alongside ten other initiatives by curator Justin McGuirk to be exhibited as part of Fear and Love, the first temporary exhibition at the new Design museum in London, running from November 2016 until 23 April 2017.
Arquitectura expandida is a laboratory that brings together research and action, whose primary objective is to investigate processes and methods of collective self-construction of the city, involving cultural and neighbourhood associations and seeking to pass on to citizens an interest in taking responsibility for the political, social and cultural management of their own territory. It functions both as a think tank (a research institution) that addresses issues and problems raised by neighbourhood organisations which can be turned into concrete participation proposals, and as an activist group that helps citizens exercise their right to inhabit the city.
The collective works primarily on urban interventions with a strong symbolic and pedagogical dimension, promoting culture as the principal means of territorial planning. It brings together collaborators with different backgrounds and interests, from humanists to illustrators, for a total of six members who share a common goal but hold different views — on sustainability, for example. "I am far more interested in sustainable organisational systems, which are often weaker, but Felipe (a member of the collective, ed.) is very interested in materials," says Ortego, one of the project's founders.
The most recent project is Potocinema, a self-managed cinema, inaugurated in October 2016 just four months after construction began in Potosí, Bogotá, a neighbourhood that emerged in the 1980s through a process of unregulated urbanisation and has long been home to victims of the armed conflict that lasted more than half a century, as well as people facing socio-economic hardship.
"A key theme in this neighbourhood is that of materials, and we tried to communicate it through words but also through the construction system," explains Ortego, "ensuring that a certain transparency was conveyed — that is, that the material would always be visible." The neighbourhood sits in an area bordering the countryside, not far from a silver mine: within it, activist groups operate that campaign for the use — and above all the non-use — of certain materials. Among them is the association No le saque la piedra a la montaña, a play on words, as sacar la piedra means not only "to extract stone" but is also an idiomatic expression meaning "to infuriate".
The Potocinema project has incorporated the already existing film school, which offers workshops three times a week, together with a new cinema. Both spaces are run by Ojo al sancocho, a neighbourhood collective that campaigns for the right to culture and access to the means needed to enjoy it.
Potocinema has been selected for display in reduced form within the Fear and Love exhibition. The installation consists of a reproduction of the building constructed with local materials, bamboo and polycarbonate sheets. Inside, a number of monitors play videos made by students from the film school, who were asked to document fear and love in their own neighbourhood. This project thus represents an important means for young people to develop new skills and creativity, finding an alternative to life on the streets.