LLUIS ALEXANDRE CASANOVAS BLANCO

• ART & TERRITOIRE

*1985 Barcelona, lives and works in Madrid

Architecte and curator

Lluís Alexandre Casanovas Blanco is an  architect, curator, and scholar. He has a joint appointment as a curator and scientific advisor for the new architecture and design collection at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and at the Education Department. He was the chief curator of the Oslo Architecture Triennale 2016 together with the After Belonging Agency. At the moment, he is finishing the manuscript of his doctoral dissertation at Princeton University. He was a Critical Studies Helena Rubinstein Fellow 2017-18 at the Whitney Independent Study Program, and an IKKM-Weimar Princeton Summer School for Media Studies Fellow 2016. His design work has been recognized with several prizes, including the Simon Architecture Prize 2018, the Bauwelt Prize 2019 and the FAD Prize 2017 for Architecture Theory and Criticism. He was a finalist for the Lisbone Triennale Millennium bcp Début Award 2019 for architects under 35. His writings have appeared in publications such as Volume, Plot, Movement Research Performance Journal, Millennium Film Journal, and newspaper El País, amongst others.    

My practice, which combines design practice, curatorship, and theory, analyzes the role that architecture, urbanism, and spatial politics can play in the post-pandemic cultural discourse. To do so, I approach art and culture institutions from a wide range of angles, including pedagogy (which refers to their interaction with the public and civic structures), and real estate (which inspects their complicity with gentrification processes). At the Embassy of Foreign Artists, I will continue the research I am currently undertaking at the Education Department of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and La Casa Encendida in Madrid, and I will analyze how architectural discussions can become an intersecting interest between local needs and international expectations. I will be researching the potential role civic driven initiatives such as EoFA can have within institutional art and cultural ecosystems, using Geneve as a case study.