Architectures of the Skin: From the Body to the Street

October 4, 2024

On October 4th, I participated in the seminar Architectures of the Skin: From the Body to the Street, one of the proposals of the public programming of the Museu Tàpies as part of the artistic project by Serge Attukwei Clottey.

Beyond the Skin is the first project by Serge Attukwei Clottey (Accra, Ghana, 1985) in Spain. It reflects on environmentalism, the environment, and migrations imposed by the global economic system.

Together with Gustau Nerín, we addressed colonial memory and linked vernacular architecture, bodily memory, and resistance.

The relationship between the body and architecture reveals a fundamental interdependence: the body imbues the space with physical and symbolic traces, while architecture provides the framework where the body inhabits, moves, and expresses itself.

The use of space transcends matter and becomes a manifestation of memory and experience. Architecture not only leaves visible marks on materials but also moves with bodies, whether they are migrants or displaced, when necessary. Through these migrations, people carry with them the experience of lived space, creating resistance to attempts at cultural suppression and homogenization by coloniality and Western modernity.

Above: Façade of the Museu Tàpies intervened by the artist Serge Attukwei Clottey, with the installation “Afterlife Voyage,” from the project “Beyond the Skin,” Barcelona, Catalonia, 2024 © Museu Tàpies. Photo by: Eva Carasol, 2024.

Below: © Museu Tàpies