The project proposes equipping the open spaces of the old abattoir with large-span mobile structures with sound amplifying systems, stage lighting and audiovisual projection systems, so that in combination with sliding stands, they may serve as auxiliary structures for any public performance held in this space. The use of these facilities would be organized in the same way as municipal tennis courts, which are booked by the hour.
The structures are an assemblage of unattended rural infrastructures — mobile irrigation systems —reprogrammed by the architects as a "voice-giving public device." Escaravox is a a technological appropriation process, a composite of ready mades, using existing technologies in a different way of that they were produced for. All components are already existing industrial elements including the basic structure, the customized watering systems, and the shade fabric, typical of Almeria greenhouses.
Wheels and simple support systems express formally the function of the mobile pavilion perfectly: they are mobile infrastructure for performance. The project's functional qualities — shading, water-spraying, and shelter — are distilled into a simple, elegant form which performs only the most basic of duties. Similarly, this ephemeral nature is expressed formally through the use of the irrigation structure which suggests a fleeting nature and a mobile, seasonal usage.
The structures were inaugurated on 28 June with a celebration of the arrival of summer. Programming will continue until mid-September and anyone may reserve time and space to offer their engagement with the audience at the Matadero's courtyard.
Project: Ruggero Agnolutto (Project Leader); Fernando Arocha, Ángela Bailén, Almudena Basabe, Elisa Bua, Álvaro Carrillo, Catalina Corredor, Roberto González García, Michal Just, Jorge López Conde, Marco Marcelletti, Paola Pardo, Khristian Serena, Patrycja Stal, Dagmar Stéeova, Silvie Talackova
Structure: BOMA
Equipment: Juan Carlos Lafuente, Álvaro Zamora
Sociological Research: Silvia Rodríguez
Video: Michal Just
Client: Matadero Madrid
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