september 2006
25M 221 2006 - proyecto de puesta en escena de un edificio público

(a public building staging project)

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Location: former Palace Hotel, former Banco Hipotecario Nacional, former shooting alley (underground), former presidencial offices, currently Buenos Aires University Philosophy Dept.- Buenos Aires.

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Buenos Aires' finnancial district. Saturday midnight. A guided visit inside century old Palace Hotel building, one of the most exclusive and aristocratic hotel of its time, now almost a ruin in wood, bronze and marble.

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Pavel -a 12 year old russian immigrant- guided us along the corridors and rooms of the extinct hotel while performing his bell boy tasks. The building, after a long series of re-encarnations, passed on to state university's hands where Argentina's most recognized academic researchers in humanities area work. Pavel's bell boy tasks from year 1906 begin to mix with others corresponding to all the other uses that the building hosted from those days on. Starting from the top floors and walking down a huge stairway, the visit ended on the main hall puntuated by huge columns where Pavel confronts armed shadows and projections.

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Work resulted out of 3 years of research on the building's history, original plans and century old advertisement for foreign visitors to Buenos Aires. Present employment, people's movement around the house, also were determinant for the final staging.