SELECTED
RESEARCH

PART 1

EXHIBITED WORK

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︎UNDARIA PINNATIFIDA
Future Assembly, 2020 Venice Architecture Biennale
@art direction: Paula Vilaplana
@concept and research: Ivan Lopez Munuera, Ignacio Galan, Matilde Cassani in collaboration with leonardo Gatti, Pablo Saiz del Rio, Paula Vilaplana

︎THE RESTROOM PAVILLION
2020 Venice Architecture Biennale
@art direction: Paula Vilaplana
@concept and research: Ivan Lopez Munuera, Ignacio Galan, Matilde Cassani in collaboration with leonardo Gatti, Pablo Saiz del Rio, Paula Vilaplana

︎YOUR RESTROOM IS A BATTLEGROUND
2020 Venice Architecture Biennale
@art direction: Paula Vilaplana
@concept and research: Ivan Lopez Munuera, Ignacio Galan, Matilde Cassani, Joel Sanders, in collaboration with Leonardo Gatti, Pablo Saiz del Rio, Seb Choe, Paula Vilaplana

︎SOME OF THESE THINGS HAPPENED
PsD Against the Epidemic, Power Station of Art Shanghai
@2020 Paula Vilaplana

︎ SALON
The State of the Art of Architecture, Triennale Milano
@2020 Fru*Fru

︎ HAUNTED REAL ESTATE: DOLLHOUSE OF DEATH
Columbia University GSAPP, CUNY Graduate Center
@2019 Paula Vilaplana

︎ AOTA TOOLKIT
Columbia GSAPP
@2019 Paula Vilaplana

︎ EXPEDIENTE C-19
Hogueras Alicante 2019
@2019 Vilaplana&Vilaplana

︎ BOOOM CITY
Hogueras Alicante 2017
@2017 Vilaplana&Vilaplana

PART 2

PERFORMANCE

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︎︎︎BEING SILICA
Performa 2021 Biennial
@Andres Jaque/ Office for Political Innovation in collaboration with Jose Luis Espejo and Paula Vilaplana

︎︎︎ SALON
The State of the Art of Architecture, Milano
@2020 Fru*Fru

︎︎︎ HAUNTED REAL ESTATE
Rochester University, Columbia GSAPP, The CUNY Graduate Center NY
@2019 Paula Vilaplana

︎︎︎ EURASIC BATH
Superhumanity: Social Media Humans
@2018 Fru*Fru

︎︎︎ EURASIC BATH
Victoria and Albert Museum London
@2017 Fru*Fru

︎︎︎ TOILET TV PLANET

Ca2M Madrid
@2016 Fru*Fru

︎︎︎ TWERKING AT MATADERO

Terraza Matadero
@2014 Fru*Fru

︎︎︎ DANCE CRAZE
Fan Riots at SOS4.8 Murcia
@2014 Fru*Fru

PART 3

WRITING

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THE HOUSE THAT GHOSTS BUILT (AND MEDIUMS PERFORMED)

>> Read full text here
@2021 Paula Vilaplana

SIGNS OF THINGS TO COME

>> Read full text here
@2021 Paula Vilaplana

HAUNTED REAL ESTATE:
THE GENDERED ARCHITECTURES OF THE US VICTORIAN LANDSCAPE

“Have haunted houses always been entertainment complexes? If we consider haunting in the context of turn of the century spiritualism or more contemporary haunted attractions, there seems an intrinsic recreational component associated with conjuring ghosts. Alas, their forms of circulation and consumption have drastically changed in the last century. First, spiritualism posits Victorian domestic parlours as performance stages, transforming interiors into congregational spaces that absorb religious and political functions. These are subversive forums that reconfigure the role of women as public subjects – channelling spirits allows them to find a voice and certain economic independence at a time when female labour is not economically rewarded”
>> Read full text here
@2019 Paula Vilaplana

THE PSYCHIC GLASSHOUSE

“The psychic glass cabinet built for the Harvard investigation challenged the recurrent depiction of the haunted house as a regressive, obsolete relic. It instead showcased the séance as high-tech, replete with cutting-edge technologies to monitor the evasive female body. As the convoluted Victorian interior concealed the medium’s sophisticated tricks, a new form of architecture was required to reveal them. Out of the early-twentieth-century vilification of the psychic medium and her domestic environment came a mid-century transformation: the glass cabinet became a full glasshouse – transparent, aseptic, and spirit-free.”
>> Read full text here
@2020 Paula Vilaplana

EL INTERNACIONAL: A SHORT-LIVED EXPERIENCE IN DOWNTOWN MANHATTAN

“ It would seem that El Internacional is always haunted by a feeling of inevitability and a menacing expiration date. Eating tapas in the last days of disco, it absorbs and reprocesses previous experiences and figures articulating the transition into a new era, not always successfully. Aware of its instability and the fragility it enjoys as one of the last refuges of an endangered scene. El Internacional tries to freeze time through all the technologies at hand. Will it succeed? Even if it closes after just two years of activity, it will reverberate in multiple media for years.Today, the arguments and modes of design at stake at El Internacional persist through its media afterlife, as the background for the music videos and clips recorded during its short-lived existence, and the restaurant can still be accessed through screens, though sensibly different to the ones it once deployed. “
@2019 Paula Vilaplana

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