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Architect Josep Torrents is to represent Catalonia at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale with a project based on the work of Jujol

Archit. & design.  Barcelona, 17/07/2013

Architect Josep Torrents is to be the curator representing Catalonia at the next Venice Architecture Biennale with the project Of the Fragment and the Whole. This is the decision of the independent panel of experts that at the request of the IRL had to choose a curator for Catalan participation in Venice. Of the Fragment and of the Whole illustrates the fundamental capability of Catalan architecture to fuse the new with the old. Josep Torrents starts with Jujol's Casa Bofarull (els Pallaresos, Tarragonès) to highlight a connecting thread of Catalan architecture that he also re-encounters in a series of later works, like the Study Centre of the Megalithic Tumulus/Dolmen of Seró, in Artesa de Segre, by Toni Gironés architect's studio or La Lira, a public facility in Ripoll, by RCR Arquitectes + Joan Puigcorbé.


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The curator Josep Torrents explained that Of the Fragment and of Whole is based on Jujol's architecture in the Casa Bofarull. "Jujol's attitude can be found in some of today's architects, not as disciples, but simply because of the way they work and understand architecture". Torrents champions Jujol as "a timeless personality, who will always be modern". In the architecture that Torrents is talking about "it is difficult to separate the whole from the fragment, and therefore the place is also indissociable. The old and the new merge and give rise to something new."

The panel of experts that chose the proposal was chaired by Lluís Domènech i Girbau, Doctor of Architecture, chairman of "Arquitectes per l'Arquitectura" and the author of several books on Modernisme. The other members were Lluís-Xavier Comerón, dean of the COAC; Fernando Marzà, head of Culture of the COAC; Fèlix Arranz and Jordi Badia, curators of the Catalan pavilion at the 2012 Architecture Biennale; Carme Pinós, architect; Olga Felip, architect; and Àlex Susanna, associate director of the IRL.

The 14th edition of the Venice Architecture Biennale will be held from 7th June to 23rd November 2014. This will be the second time that the IRL is promoting the presence of Catalonia at the Architecture Biennale, after presenting the project Vogadors in 2012, to great public and critical acclaim. It was curated by Jordi Badia and Fèlix Arranz, and featured nine works by young Catalan and Balearic architects. The project Vogadors can currently be seen at the Fabra i Coats arts centre. 

Josep Torrents (Sant Pere de Riudebitlles, 1969)
He did his PhD at ETSAB in Barcelona and has been an architect for ETSAB since 1999, the year he opened his own studio and began working with other architects. He was one of the people in charge of the different editions of the Art Biennial - Work on Paper in Sant Pere de Riudebitlles (2000-2012) and curated the exhibition Café dels Voyageurs (2012) at the COAC.

His latest architectural work includes the project for the house and arts centre in Maâiz (Morocco, 2013), the recent construction of the Garcia Muret winery (Pallars Jussà, 2012) and the enlargement of the Pardas winery (Alt Penedès, 2012).

In 1999 he was runner-up in the FAD awards in the category of ephemeral spaces along with the painter Jaume Amigó.

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The panel of experts has chosen his proposal entitled "Of the Fragment and the Whole"

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