The Mugak Architecture Biennale will dedicate its main exhibition to Carme Pins

Donostia – The work of the Catalan architect Carme Pinós will be the subject of the main exhibition of the new edition of the Mugak Architecture Biennial, to be held in November this year. Pinós, “eternal outsider“of state architecture, she has signed important works such as the Igualada Cemetery, the Archery Center of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games – she developed them with her husband, the late Enric Miralles -, the Caixa Forum building from Zaragoza or the Plaza de la Gardunya, also in Barcelona.

The Department of Housing of the Basque Government reported yesterday that it is already preparing the third edition of this biennial which, this time, will be developed under the “backbone” of the subject Heritage and modernity. Thus, this monographic exhibition by Mugak on the “prestigious” Catalan architect will be installed at the headquarters of the Basque Institute of Architecture of Euskadi, located in the Santa Teresa convent in Donostia, and will have the collaboration of Pinós herself, who is already working in the definition of the exhibition and its content.

“Carme Pinós is one of the most important architects of the last decades and has a long international career,” explained the Department of Housing. In the early 90s, the architect founded her own studio and began a “successful solo career internationally”, designing “outstanding” buildings in countries such as France, Australia or Mexico.

Among the numerous awards he has won, the National Award for Architecture and Public Space of the Generalitat de Catalunya for his professional career (2008); the first prize of the IX Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (2008); and the National Architecture Prize of the Higher Council of Architects of Spain (1995), among others.

In this way, the Barcelonan takes over from RCR Arquitectes and the Ulm School and the Braun company, institutions that were also the object of exhibitions in the first two editions of Mugak, which will once again have the collaboration of the School of Architecture UPV / EHU and the participation of the Official College of Architects and the Peña Ganchegui Archive.

Beyond the central exhibition dedicated to Pinós, the department led by Iñaki Arriola recalled that the exhibitions will continue to be “the central channel” of the program, “both in theaters and on the streets of the three Basque capitals”. In this sense, they explained that the pandemic “forces us to rethink some face-to-face formats” and that the capacity could be conditioned, precisely, by the evolution of the health crisis.

The new director of the Institute of Architecture, José Ángel Medina, is in charge of the organization and coordination of the next Mugak. Precisely, this doctor architect and expert in the work of Aizpurua and Labayen – previously he directed the Higher Technical School of Architecture of the University of Navarra and now works between Madrid and Donostia -, together with the companies K6 Gestión Cultural and Gabineteseis, won the public tender for the technical assistance of the aforementioned institute’s program, “with the double objective of consolidating” its activities and the production of the biennial.