CUERPO GRIS

Gau Zuria (White Night) festival took placeon the 17th and 18th of June 2022, for the 722nd jubilee of Bilbao CityFoundation. On the occasion, 28 artistic interventions transformed the Basquecapital’s urban landscape. Cuerpo Gris ( Grey Body), isa site-specific intervention spreading over the cloister of the former Conventode la Encarnación. In a few minutes, an imposing organic volume was displayed,colonizing the central garden of the 16th Century building. The installation’scontinuous, slinky, and soft body disrupts the archery’s repetitive languageand the carved stones’ rigid tectonic. This new volume affects the cloister in aradical manner. Cuerpo Gris unfolds in space, winding between the elements ofthe garden around the lily fountain which remains as a central symbolicelement. The inflated structure follows the main axes of the courtyard and itssoft body is composed of three tangent pieces of variable diameters, which summore than 120 meters of lineal length and reach a height up to 6 meters. Thanks to a detailed study of the site and a handcrafted production of thepatronage, Cuerpo Gris adapts to the cloister’s topography. Rooted in theground, it ties the boxwood bushes and absorbs the centenary olive tree in itstwists. The experience of the atmosphere ismaterialized in a series of cavities proposing a fragmented vision of thespace. The installation plays with the visitor: Cuerpo Gris alternativelyimmobilizes you, rolls you up softly in intimate spaces, expels you or invitesyou to straddle it. A monstrous corps that traps you in its interior and oppressesyour gaze. The monumental appearance confronts the human body with a strangepresence which is never revealed completely. Martillo Neumático is a young collectiveinterested in ephemeral site-specific interventions with a monumental quality. Their works show up spontaneously, willing to alter the usual dynamics of urbanspace. In 2019 they carried out Eclipse, the winning project of InsolitFestival in Palma de Mallorca. Among other works, in 2020 they presented Desplome(Collapse), a counter-monument located in the ruins of the former Iglesia delsDolors, for the festival A Cel Obert of Tortosa. Project name: CUERPO GRIS Company name: MARTILLO NEUMÁTICO Website: Contact e-mail: neumaticomartillo@gmail. com Project location: Museo de Arte Sacro de Bilbao,Encarnacion Plaza, Bilbao CompletionYear: 2022 Building area (m²): 900m2 Other participants: Martillo Neumatico: Roman Sost, Ramon Cano,Iñigo Barrón and Jerome Llorente. Collaborators:Inés Miño, Ana Moure, CesarFuertes, Tarino Cano y Patricia Salazar. Photo credits: Antonio Bouzas Barcala(Instagram: @abw. ork)