TEXT

Por Mark Lee

A hagioscope is an oblique architectural opening made in a wall or column of a church’s chancel to allow the faithful, or those who could not see the altar, to see whoever was celebrating mass. Known as “squints” in England, hagioscopes were also called “leper windows,” since the opening in the exterior wall allowed lepers and other outcasts to view the mass without coming into contact with the rest of the congregation. Unlike windows that allow light, air, and sound to pass through, a hagioscope has the sole function of allowing the excluded to see.

Diego Arraigada’s installation at LIGA, titled Mirar Adentro, Mirar Afuera (Looking In, Looking Out), is a continuation of the architectural lineage of the hagioscope. It consists primarily of a hollow body that connects the gallery’s two existing windows across its interior corner; its trapezoidal, faceted form results from the negotiation between the two windows. On the outside, the piece transforms the exterior corner by removing the glass and creating a smooth, continuous surface that draws the surfaces of both exterior façades into the interior of the new opening. Seen from the street, it pulls the gaze inward, and back out again. Like the effect produced by a Klein bottle or a Möbius strip, the act of looking from outside to inside, only to look outward again, short-circuits the logic of the typical architectural opening. In contrast to the exterior, the surfaces of the new body inside the gallery appear irregular and discontinuous. Like an inverted version of Brutalist architecture, it is the interior structure that is left exposed and unfinished, like the back of a stage set: the interior bracing and scaffolding (which make the abstract exterior effect possible) are left just as they are.

Whereas a traditional hagioscope operates under the assumption of a marked separation, whether for social or structural reasons, Mirar Adentro, Mirar Afuera simultaneously generates the very separation it seeks to undo: by denying the windows’ original function as a connection between interior and exterior, it creates a boundary that divides the two realms. Only by establishing this separation can a new connection emerge: from outside to inside, and outward again. The installation reinvents the hagioscope, achieving both separation and connection in a single, definitive gesture.

At a time when much recent design research probes the dissolution of boundaries, Diego Arraigada’s movingly simple installation at LIGA is a gentle reminder that sometimes the most innovative research is achieved with the most traditional architectural means.

DISTINCTIONS

– Obra Seleccionada para la I Bienal Internacional de Arquitectura Argentina (BIAAR), 2014

TEAM

Agustina Mendez, Maria Emilia Bertero

CONSTRUCTION COMPANY

Factor Eficiencia

FLOOR AREA

16 m2

PHOTOS

@ Luis Gallardo