León Duval — Spatial Possibilities

This piece of work, Critical Narratives, corresponds to the End of the Year Show and Portfolio, which summarises my overall production during my period studying into the AAD´s program at Columbia GSAPP, from 2021 to 2022. Nevertheless, the path shown here started in 2018, when I started my studies into the Master in American Aesthetics program, capitalised by my master’s thesis: “Bicianimitas. Arrangements for a new urban monument.” completed in 2020. I started researching the relationship between appropriation conditions and popular iconic images in the urban space of the city, through the case of the Bicianimitas in Chile, as a way to understand the interpretation of contemporary urban public space by counterculture. Where, Bicianimitas are a manifestation that originated in 2012 after the death of a cyclist in the street by a drunk driver, which juxtaposed different popular rituals: the anglo-saxon roots practice of the White Bicycle, with the prehispanic rooted practice of the Animita. Creating a new form of popular production, and linking images of a popular and religious practice with a civic and political practice happening all together in the urban space. Then, while studying at Columbia, I´ve started to refine my interests by incorporating a transscalar approach to my methodologic research behaviour.

My studies at GSAPP teached me ways to comprehend complex issues by understanding their multilayered complexities while considering the actors network involved. All of what can be explained -but not shown- by my Fall’s Research Assistantship with the Program Director at the time, and current Dean, Andrés Jaque. Where I worked in the transscalar representation of highly complex projects of different scales and cultural backgrounds by the understanding of their interrelationship with different aspects of society, culture, and nature. Experiences that have been modelling my interests to focus on the political condition of architecture, but more importantly, in the negotiations occurring underneath events and cases which produce sets of images as expressions of contemporary culture. Then, with this booklet, my intention is to show a summary of the narratives implied in the design researches developed during my time in GSAPP rather than a list of design projects. Here resides my ultimate personal interests, ones that have started to swift from the pursuit of the pure design to a more complex and transscalar approach. Which today have me deeply focused on the understanding of culture issues by taking into account the different variables that composed them, to expose, unveil, and unfold the technosocial subterranean logics and dynamics. All of what I’m committed to spatially visualising and representing for being able to expose different conflictive territories with their power dynamics shaping  current society.

M.S. Advanced Architectural Design - Columbia GSAPP