Spanish artist Mario Pasqualotto recently transformed Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion with an ephemeral light intervention. The project, titled Big Bang Building Light! was presented by Fundació Mies van der Rohe, an organisation that looks after the conservation and dissemination of knowledge about the celebrated pavilion, which is also known as ‘Mies’ architectural promenade’.

Light changes the perception of things. – Mario Pasqualotto

The installation projected strokes of light and colour on the floating planes of the pavilion and emphasised its quintessential architectural details – the travertine pavers, cruciform columns, walls, reflecting ponds, and a low-flat roof. At the sunset, the intervention turned around the narrow profile of the site - its vertical lines and the horizontal horizon - and offered an ‘alternate vision’ of the historic space.

“Reflecting on this project where light and colour change perception of things, this project invites the viewer to enjoy a new reading and a new vision of the pavilion,” says Barcelona-based Pasqualotto. A combination of blue and white strokes highlights the planar geometry of the site where few details were well illuminated, while some were left untouched.

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The artist’s intervention proposed to develop a reflection on the history of contemporary architecture via the medium of the famed Barcelona Pavilion. The space built by Mies and architect Lilly Reich for the 1929 International Exposition, which was disassembled post the closure of the exhibition in 1930, originally displayed architecture’s modern movement to the world and depicted the face of Germany after World War II. For Mies, the project was not just a pavilion of exposition, but an inhabitable sculpture. Given the significance and reputation of the pavilion as a key point of reference in the 20th century architecture, thoughts turned toward its possible reconstruction and a new building came up in 1986.

The projection of light and colour accentuates the pavilion’s horizontal horizon from the front esplanade and change the perception of its radical plastic beauty. – Fundació Mies van der Rohe

Fernando Ramos, one of the architects responsible for the research, design and supervision of the existing pavilion, says, “The intervention {by Pasqualotto} propose to highlight with lines and points of light the main architectural elements {of Barcelona Pavilion} generating the diaphanous spaces and walls of the pavilion, as well as the process of its accelerated design and construction.”

Inspired by the simplicity of the architecture, the proportions and the absence of ornamentation, Pasqualotto drew with light a new projection of the pavilion over the existing one. “I wanted to show this building like a complete artwork, also as an architectural work as well as like a painting,” he adds.

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As one traversed the site to experience the light, successive phases of the space opened up, revealing moments of curiosity and perceiving a tangible effortlessness of the historic architecture.

Big Bang Building Light! was revealed within the framework of the Llum Barcelona Festival and the Santa Eulalia festival. It was on view till February 16, 2020, at the Barcelona Pavilion in Barcelona, Spain.