The exhibition was inaugurated with a lecture, with the key players of the area participating.
More info here.

©Pavillion de l‘Arsenal

©Pavillion de l‘Arsenal

©Pavillion de l‘Arsenal

©Pavillion de l‘Arsenal

Metaphor A-Z +  5-minute poem Beautiful Triangles
By Beatriz Ramo, STAR strategies + architecture
Mixed media: Hand-cut printed images + ink on cardboard

I_ In the invitation letter about the upcoming exhibition at the Storefront: Aesthetics/Anesthetics, Eva Franch asked me to participate by making a ‘drawing’ of the Storefront’s gallery space including a plan, a section, an elevation or any other representational method (…).

II_ While reading about Storefront I quickly came across this humorous sentence from The New Yorker about the gallery: The place is shaped like a slice of pizza, and it’s not much bigger, but there’s nothing small about the visions on view at Storefront for Art and Architecture. (…)
III_ Metaphors!

Metaphors are a frequently recurring instrument for many architects when communicating their projects. But too often metaphors are confused with concepts and then architecture unavoidably falls into banal, corny, and predictable associations, reducing the intrigue of a project to a dull one-liner.

IV_ My piece for the Storefront is a satirical collection of Storefront metaphors; from the inspiring NY pizza slice to a Spanish Jamón Ibérico; all of them triangles aiming to remind us of the iconic triangular plan of the Storefront.

V_ How many triangles and in which order? I found the answer in the Storefront’s inaugural event in 1982: Performance A-Z, and I made an alphabet of metaphors: Metaphor A-Z.

VI_ It seemed redundant to explain a satire, so I wrote a five-minute poem entitled: Beautiful Triangles.

VII_ I cut, glued and wrote it by hand

Metaphor A-Z:
A  Acheulean Axe
B  Borat’s Thong Swimsuit, 2006
C  Central Park View
D  Dadaist A, 1920
E   Elvis by Andy Warhol, 1963
F   Flatiron Building, 1902
G   Giacometti’s Man Striding, 1960
H  High Heel, United Nude
I    Il Monumento Continuo, Superstudio, 1969
J   Jamón de Jabugo
K  Koolhaas’s Nose
L   Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man, 1487
M  Mercury at Wembley Stadium ‘86
N  No Hubo Remedio, Goya, 1799
O  Old Megaphone
P   Polite way to discern a triangle in Flatland, 1884
Q   Quarter Past Four
R   Red Wedge by El Lissitzky, 1919
S   Storefront Gallery, NY
T  The Story of the Pool, Rem Koolhaas, 1977
U  U.S.A Tie
V  ‘Vogue’ video – Cone Bra, Madonna, 1990
W  West Pediment Parthenon, 432 BC
X   XL Pizza Slice
Y  Yummy French Fries
Z   Zenobia, Dance 1990, John Hejduk 

The 5-minute poem: Beautiful Triangles 

Beautiful triangles,
worn out metaphors;
we entrusted you with a mission:
so go! – and spread the word 
 
And there you go,
great architect on stage,
explaining your architecture,
don’t you get red in the face?

Beautiful triangles:
pizza, Freddie and Rem,
symbols of the Storefront,
will forever be stuck in the minds of them.

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Opening of the exhibition (pictures from Storefront Flickr):

From Storefront website:
Aesthetics / Anesthetics
on birds, axonometries, children, green, comics and 30 Storefronts

June 27 – July 28, 2012
Exhibition Opening: June 26, 2012, 7-9PM

What is it that an architectural drawing does and how does it do it? How can we distill beauty from cosmetics? How can new modes of representation produce new architectures and new sensibilities? 

Aesthetics/Anesthetics is an exhibition about architectural drawings.

Aesthetics/Anesthetics  invites audiences to reflect on the performing properties of architectural drawings, their purpose and aesthetic qualities, encouraging the architectural community and other creatives to push drawings, and with it architecture, beyond inherited acknowledged values. An image [and its after-image] carries within itself a history [or performative script] of characters, discourses, and conventions. During the last ten years there has been a resurgence of certain representational devices that have become architectural clichés operating almost as placeholders or decorative elements of an architecture unable to draw itself. We all have seen them: birds on beautiful skies, happy children with balloons, those axonometries… this exhibition is an invitation to let those clichés go and explore the performativity of the architectural drawing as a way to generate a new imaginary. The 30 drawings on display are an open door to reclaim a lost territory: the drawing.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is a collection of 30 newly commissioned architectural drawings. Each drawing depicts the Storefront Gallery space at 97 Kenmare, from the perspectives of a diverse group of emerging and established architects worldwide. The drawings reveal a different aspect of the space and are representative of the generative properties of the architect’s drawing. The gallery space, wallpapered with sourced images of birds, axonometries, children, green and comics cut from drawings produced in the past five years, reflects on the specific graphic devices used by architects to ignite certain feelings and properties in their drawings that the architectural drawing itself is unable to convey: skies filled with birds to portray movement, axonometries as a mode of applied intellectuality, children as life generators, green surfaces as magic ecological surfaces, or comics as prosthetic communicative devices.

A series of lectures and workshops that reflect on the purpose of the architectural drawing will be presented during the exhibition. Details will be posted here at a later date.

Each of the 30 commissioned architectural drawings will be auctioned at the end of the exhibition. Proceeds will support Storefront for Art and Architecture’s exhibitions and programs. For information on the auction, please email info@storefrontnews.org.

More images here

Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York
Aesthetics / Anesthetics
Metaphor A/Z + 5´ poem: Beautiful Triangles (mix media)
Group Exhibition
New York, United States of America
June 27 – July 28, 2012

3 Nations. Emerging Architects
Bureau Happold, 17 Newman Street
STAR strategies + architecture (8 prizes)
Group Exhibition
London, United Kingdom
November 9 – December 21, 2011

STAR presented O’ Mighty Green in the Festival and Beatriz Ramo took part in a debate entitled Sustainability vs. Green-washing on July 1st at the COAC –Chamber of Architects in Cataluña.
The panel included Davidson Rafailidis, Stéphane Malka, Beatriz Ramo, and Roberto Ferlito from Nabito Architects. It was moderated by Mónica Tárrega Klein

O’Mighty Green was featured in the Saturday edition of La Vanguardia newspaper, distributed 230.000 times.

From eme3 site:
eme3 International Architecture Festival is back in its 6th edition. Under the topic WORK IN PROCESS: GLOBAL PROBLEMS, LOCAL SOLUTIONS, eme3_2011 will take place in Barcelona from30 of June to 3rd of July in several downtown exhibition centers: COAC (Col.legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya) in the Cathedral’s Square, ARTS SANTA MONICA and the Design School ELISAVA on the Ramblas, and Disseny HUB in carrer Montcada (in front of Museu Picasso).
The festival’s format will continue as in previous years. Participants will present their projects in a cross way in the different sections: market (exhibition), scale 1:1 (urban interventions and prototypes), debates and lectures, audiovisual sessions and workshops.
The eme3 guideline, characterized as a festival that questions and confronts different points of views on architecture and its relationship to society, intends this year to provide with concrete answers to global solutions, which were presented and discussed in the last 2010 edition.
Thus, among other, questions will revolve around the contradictions between sustainable development and “green-washing”, the appropriateness of the use of technology resources compared to “low cost”, the urban impasses or the micro-urban policies affecting citizens in their daily lives.
Both participants and public will have the chance to experience and debate away from conventions and dogmas, facing and complementing ideas and being able to make one’s own opinion about the role of architecture today.

Eme3 International Architecture Festival – COAC Colegio de Arquitectos de Cataluña
Work in progress: Global problems, Local Solutions
O’Mighty Green – Oh Verde Todopoderoso
Group Exhibition
Barcelona, Spain
June 30 – July 3, 2011

From the exhibition:
The exhibition shows 25 flourishing architecture studios from Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. It focus on newly constricted or modified buildings: one family homes, factory, and public buildings, but also a big wheel or a space station made from washing machines, It is about autonomous concepts, modern materials, network, cross-border and interdisciplinary co-operation, speculative architecture and the relationship between architecture and society. A pragmatic and sometimes ironical approach is typical of many projects. Economical, aesthetical, and ecological concepts go hand in hand. The relation between politics and architecture is used tactically and often temporarily.

Curator: Brigitte Franzen
Guest Curators: modulorbeat, Marc Günnewig and Jan Kampshoff
Offices:
2012 Architecten, Rotterdam
Anne Holtrop, Amsterdam
ANORAK, Brussels
Artgineering, Rotterdam
BeL, Cologne
DUS, Architects Amsterdam
FAR FROHN&ROJAS, Cologne, Santiago de Chile, Los Angeles
KOMMA4 Architekten, Cologne
LAb[au], Brussels
Lobomob, Wuppertal
Low architecten, Antwerp
Modulorbeat, Münster
NEXT architects, Amsterdam
NU architectuuratelier, Gent
OFFICE KGDVS, Brussels
One fine day, Düsseldorf
Pasel.künzel architects, Rotterdam
Powerhouse Company, Rotterdam
Rotor, Brussels
Space&matter, Amsterdam
STAR strategies+architecture, Rotterdam
STUDYO ARCHITECTs, Cologne
URA, Brussels
V Plus, Brussels
ZUS [Zones Urbaines Sensibles], Rotterdam

From the website:
The exhibiton “West Arch – a new generation in architecture” shows 25 architecture studios from Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany which all respond to present demands and problems in an experimental and unconventional way. The exhibition will present both spaces that have actually been realized as well as spaces in planning or considered possible. Characteristic interests, strategies and solutions are shown and emphasize aspects of production, materials, research and education, new media and technologies, sponsorship, support and competition, inspiring examples and networks. The specific and speculative nature of a new generation of architectural thinking and architectural strategies is of special interest.
Download invitation here

West Arch, A New Generation in Architecture  
Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst  
STAR strategies + architecture (10 projects)
Group Exhibition
Aachen, Germany.
September 12 – November 28, 2010

Images courtesy of Ludwig Forum

Informatie Centrum Belvédère
Europan 10 Prijswinnaars Maastricht
46 solutions Finalist Europan 10
Group Exhibition
Maastricht, the Netherlands.
March 2 – 31, 2010

NAi Nederlands Architectuurinstituut
Europan 10!
46 solutions Finalist Europan 10 + Map series: Europan Continent + Europan NL  
Group Exhibition
Rotterdam, the Netherlands
February 2 – May 16, 2010

↑image above: Alejandro Soler and Beatriz Ramo at the press conference at FITUR. © All rights reserved by turisme d’ Elx

Mirador del Palmeral de Elche: Presentation + Exhibition
FITUR 2010– Feria Internacional de Turismo at IFEMA
Madrid, Spain.
January 20, 2010
 

Alejandro Soler, the Major of Elche, at FITUR.  ©All rights reserved by Turisme d’ Elx
Alejandro Soler and Beatriz Ramo at the press conference at FITUR. © All rights reserved by turisme d’ Elx

Postcards series for FITUR

Postcards series for FITUR
© All rights reserved by turisme d’ Elx

Mirador del Palmeral de Elche: Lecture + Exhibition
COAA- Chamber of Architects
Alicante, Spain.
November 5, 2009

Fundación COAM  
Competition Parque de Valdebebas
Planeta Imaginario
Group Exhibition
Madrid, Spain.
September 10 – October 1, 2009

Le déjeuner sur l’herbe. 1862 – Manet