BURR. GUATA

The nature of a contemporary art museum is changeable, fluid and transformative, as befits an institution dedicated to the art of the future. Furthermore, the CA2M Museum is characterised by its unique asset in the form of regular visitors who are accustomed to the unhindered use of the liminal spaces scattered throughout the museum. For this reason, in contrast with the administrative language that institutions by their nature tend to adopt, the CA2M Museum responded to the transient nature of the Covid-19 emergency by retaining its image of welcome and openness.

Based on this premise, the museum set out to create a new reception desk in 2021. In this case, the BURR architectural practice responded to the urgent commission with a volume whose design is perfectly adapted to the function it has to perform. Its lacquered tubular steel structure accommodates tempered glass shelf and storage surfaces, but everything is clad in a padded textile surface. Guata (‘wadding’), the name given to this design, meets the purpose of conveying a warm and friendly welcome to the museum’s visiting public, as well as being a literal expression of what a soft institution is: free from institutional snobbery and welcoming to everybody.

At the same time as it condenses the sensation of hospitality, the fabric creates a cosy space for the reception staff. Like a gigantic, deformed and tentacled brazier table, this unit shelters our receptionists and provides them with the basic comforts that allow them to perform their roles of providing care.

The CA2M Museum does not collect pieces of contemporary design, but it commissions pieces that adapt the spaces to the needs of the different visitors and the uses they make of the space. Although the relationship with BURR will be a medium-term one, the fabrics need to be renewed after wear, and Guata will be wearing different skins in the near future in a long-term collaborative commitment.

About BURR

BURR is an architectural practice founded by Elena Fuertes (1987), Ramón Martínez (1987), Álvaro Molins (1987) and Jorge Sobejano (1988). Amanda Bouzada, Jesús Meseguer and Pablo Navas have also joined the team in December 2019, February 2021 and June 2021, respectively.
Its name, BURR, refers to the imperfections caused by the accumulation of material after metal undergoes an industrial process of transformation. The practice focuses its interest on situations that are often considered surplus to requirements or do not conform to aesthetic or practical norms. Its work has a strongly experimental aspect, seeking to open up the spectrum of the spaces we inhabit, the techniques we employ, the materials we use, and the models we put into practice.

Its designs have been selected to form a part of different exhibitions, both solo and collective, including participation in the 2015 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, and participation in the first International Architecture Biennial of San Sebastian, held in 2017, as well as the exhibitions Public Symphonies, held in 2014 at MAXXI, Rome; The Way Things Go, held in 2015 at the Monoambiente gallery in Buenos Aires; and Las Voces del GPS, held in 2017 at the CentroCentro art centre in Madrid.
BURR has presented lectures at different international conferences and events, including the 2017 and 2019 editions of the RIXC Festival of Arts and Science, held at the Latvian National Museum, Riga; the 2018 edition of Radical Networks, held at Spektrum, Berlin; the 2017 Image Study Seminar: Futuros glitch. Especulación de datos, tecnocosmología y desposesión en tiempos de capitalismo acelerado (Glitch futures. Speculation of data, technocosmology and dispossession in times of accelerated capitalism) at the CA2M Museum, Madrid; and took part in the IAM Weekend 2019: The Quantumness of Archipelagos, held in Barcelona.

BURR has been the recipient of awards and prizes, acknowledgements and grants, including first prize in the EUROPAN 13 international competition. It was also a finalist for the 2013, 2015 and 2022 Arquia Próxima awards, the 2019 FAD awards and the 2021 Ascer Awards.