Ernesto Oroza

Ernesto Oroza  
Museo Popular Concreto: Inform
Fredric Snitzer Gallery
October 6 – November 18, 2017
Opening Reception: Friday, October 6, 7-9pm

1540 NE Miami Court, Miami, FL 33132
p. (305) 448 8976
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 5pm

Virtual 3D Tour

Ernesto Oroza
Museo Popular Concreto

Museo Popular Concreto is conceived to be a series of exhibitions to be held in cities where the industrialization of architecture functioned as a fulcrum in the mass production of the modern habitat. This exhibition unveils the project.

The architecture of the Museo Popular Concreto rests on a unique element, one systematized on a global scale: a cylindrical concrete sample measuring 12×6 inches on which tests are carried out for resistance to structural and environmental forces. As a sample, each concrete test specimen makes reference to a building or urbanized area, embodying a dialectic relationship through its material. Where a building is no longer in existence, they signal the void.

Generally one of the circular faces of the cylinder shows etched information that includes dates, names or initials of the associated architectural objects and internal production codes. These inscriptions provide a meticulous system of cultural, geographical and historical references. Thus the charter of the Museo Popular Concreto is based on the following pronouncement: all concrete test specimens originating in or spread throughout the cities of the world, alone or in groups, in one piece, destroyed, or as parts of other constructions, make up an abstract index of the political, social and technological forces and movements that informed modern architecture.

As sediment the body of these concrete test specimens acts as a generalizing horizon, a display without preconceptions or hierarchies, one from which other narratives can be established or liberated.

Their utopian roots and their sturdy materiality, moreover, allow the concrete test specimens to participate in the configuration of new scenarios, and with them, new promises.

Photographs, standardized and involuntary Non-sites, impressions, texts, diagrams, models, and objects for communication and identification all make up this first official launch of the architecture of the Museo Popular Concreto.

In tandem with this first public unveiling, the Museo Popular Concreto announces its first exhibition: Inform:

The exhibit will revolve around a system of abstract urban maps produced by a technique of plastic injection applied at Cuban homes since the ’90s. The presentation’s thesis takes shape from the premise that, beyond the mechanical force implied in this methodology, these maps underscore the impact of biological, political, economic, cultural and legal forces manifested on the island during the social and economic crisis of the final decade of the twentieth century.