FERNANDA FRAGATEIRO
Montijo, Portugal, 1962
Um caminho que não é um camino, Road that Is Not a Road, 2005
600 x 75,5 x 12 cmWood, steel and mirror

Fernanda Fragateiro is interested in exploring the urban environment and how it is shaped by architecture, both from the standpoint of form and function. Hence, the social dimension of architecture and the way it conditions human interaction and its organization is an important concern in her formal research, which is equally predicated on her rethinking of the relationship between architecture and sculpture. Indeed, most of her works take their formal cue from architectural details or fragments, while some are actually made out of found construction material she gathers while roaming around the city.

In 2004, with the support of a Fundación Botín grant, Fragateiro travelled to Ciudad Abierta (Open City, located outside of Valparaiso, in Chile) to carry out research on this unique open-air laboratory for architecture and urban planning. Conceived in the early 1970s by an architect and a poet, it has unfolded ever since under the auspices of the local faculty of architecture; for almost five decades, architects, poets, artists, and engineers have been engaged in one of the most radical experiments in architectural education. Ciudad Abierta continues to grow and decays apace. While on site, Fragateiro observed its evolution, in a way becoming part of the project.

Her interest was triggered by her coming across Road that Is Not a Road and the Open City, Ritoque, Chile, a 1996 publication that surveys this designed city still in the making but without any master plan, any imposed ordering devices, and any hierarchical networks of infrastructure – a live sculpture of sorts. The title of the book inspired the title of this work, which consists of the replica of a duckboard pathway she encountered while scouting the grounds of Ciudad Abierta. It also reflects upon the transfer into the exhibition space of what was once a utilitarian construction, and its consequent change of status: this shift is formally enacted by the mirror base, which replaces the soil the original pathway was laid on.