Jorge Oteiza and Mariano Garrigues at INIA (1951-57): a crossroads of two modernities

Abstract

The fruitful decade of the nineteen-fifties, although a widely studied period, harbours unexpected eventualities, such as the confluence of a resolutely experimental sculptor and an architect of a more possibilistic nature. The circumstances surrounding the encounter and revelation of this joint work, very rarely mentioned in the corresponding literature, can be seen as an event that contributes to verifying, once again, the multi-faceted soul of the modern movement in Spain, whose fruitfulness was a result of its inherent hybridity, strengthened by the challenge of creating any classification. In this case, it is concluded that Oteiza’s piece, the result of his investigation into the spatial implications of the wall, is juxtaposed against the building by Garrigues without achieving a real dialogue with the incipient modernism in the architecture of the institute.