Fabrica: Hot&Cold / 48

Fabrica students provide a conceptual portrayal of heat in its most immediate manifestation – temperature – in a number of artistic and sensorial installations.

A creative team of Fabrica researchers, led by Sam Baron, has designed a number of installations that “give shape to air”, the most commonly employed means to transfer heat and one that reflects the mission of Japanese firm Daikin, a partner in the initiative, which has always sought to ‘air-condition’ our lives.

The exhibition presents eight main design themes that develop the same concept with different formal results, distinguished by a stated temperature. These range from delightful bases for plants enclosed in ice cubes – agaves that live at 19.1°C, cactus at 17.2° and aloe at 25°C – to installations of propellers, single or in groups, that represent the annual bird migration from cold to hot climes. One of these birds, the Arctic Tern, is the bird that spends the most time in the daylight, flying every year from the Arctic to the Antarctic, where it encounters an average summer temperature of -27°C.

There are also ice caves where only fire can create the conditions required for life, at a body temperature of 37°C, to glass cases containing aromas, cold ones like mint or hot ones like cinnamon. From waterfalls that freeze over, with the heat produced by their own movement, below 0°C, to the solar planet system, the hottest planet being Venus with temperatures of 462°C and the coldest Neptune with its –201°C.

Visiting the exhibition is a sensorial experience that engages direct visitor involvement via aromas, music and strong synesthetic perceptions.