Tinglao — Architecture de l'attente

Amid the construction work sweeping through the neighborhood, Ernesto Artillo has conceived a sculpture that gives new form to materials: remnants of memories and a sacred monument. The work is unveiled during a ritual inspired by Holy Week in Málaga, at the opening of the Nouveau Printemps.

The station district is undergoing a major transformation. Ernesto Artillo conceives a work based on a recurring question in his practice: what could be sacred in a place like this? Here, amidst demolitions, sealed-off buildings, and announcements of future developments, what remains seems to lie on the ground: material remnants that hold a collective memory invisible or excluded from narratives of renewal.

The work unfolds in two phases. First, a tinglao is constructed: a temporary structure made of scaffolding and tarps, inspired by the makeshift solutions historically used in Málaga to house the large processional floats of Holy Week when permanent buildings were unavailable. Inside this enclosed space, a sculpture, initially hidden. At this stage, the tinglao is an opaque entity where meaning is concentrated without offering a direct image, articulated through anticipation and mystery. Its form also recalls the scaffolding and tarps commonly used around buildings under construction. In a second phase, the tinglao opens to the public, and what had been protected and kept hidden is revealed. The structure and its contents then function as a single, unified work.

In a context where buildings disappear to make way for new ones, these scaffolds do not foreshadow what is to come, but indicate what was there. The work does not propose a reconstruction or a promise of the future, but a way of looking at the present through its remnants, integrating urban transformation as a space of meaning rather than as a simple replacement.

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A publication documenting the work’s creation process will be produced in collaboration with MACLE, a multidisciplinary research and creation studio active in the fields of architecture, heritage, landscape, and craftsmanship.

Ernesto Artillo’s exhibition will be complemented by a performance featuring a local choir during the festival’s opening weekend for the unveiling of the installation.

With the support of Europolia – Grand Matabiau quais d’Oc and FP01 Architectes, and in collaboration with Premys, TESS (Tom Gray and Simon Aubry), and Maxence Grangeot.