Pablo is an Alumni of Architecture and Fine Arts from Universidad Europea de Madrid. Recently, he participated in the art exhibition Biting my tongue in Gothenburg, Sweden, with his project Self-Health Universe.
Please tell us when you studied and which faculty and campus you were at.
I was at the Villaviciosa de Odón Campus: Architecture and Fine Arts and I finished in 2019.
Tell us about your trajectory from graduation to starting your project in Sweden.
As I’ve studied both degrees, I have an interdisciplinary perspective in which two worlds always coexist: the world of Art and the world of Architecture.
I was very active during my last years at the UEM. I collaborated in various university projects such as the Bi-City Biennial Hongkong-Shenzhen (China) or the AA Visiting School Madrid, among others. I combined the last years of my degree with work at Universidad Europea de Madrid and with projects outside the university. In 2019, after presenting my final degree project, "Mens sana in corpore sano", Switzerland to create "Invisible Tales", a collaboration with architects from Finland, Japan and Lithuania. During the summer we explored the intersection between climate change and tourism in Villars sur Ollon, a ski village in the Alps.
Spending several years working at FABLAB also allowed me to always be in contact with teachers, students and other professionals at the university. FABLABUE is a vibrant ecosystem and meeting point where projects become a reality. I could get involved in research tasks, I played a role in designing orthotics and prosthetics prototypes using 3D for the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, and a race car for the Fórmula Student club. I felt as though I was in a very productive space and I’ve still got peers from other departments with whom I’ve worked later on.
After graduating, I was given the opportunity to redesign the space and furniture at FABLAB. The architectural renovation of an educational space allowed me to get to know the professional world beyond the academic environment. Other projects and private commissions followed afterwards.
During the pandemic, we presented "Gym Olympia", a project based on doing sports in domestic environments. Straddling architecture, sport and education, Gym Olympia was an unusual type of critical gym that brought together hundreds of users around the world during lockdown. It gave rise to a film that we presented at AMIFF21, a film festival in Harstad, Norway. Let’s say that I’ve been on a constant search for opportunities in artistic and architectural contexts, other participatory and collective, with pedagogical dimensions.
What is it like to take the leap to Sweden? What inspired you to go and what were the first months in a new country like?
I’ve always been interested in getting involved and understanding different cultural contexts. I've spent time working in China, living in Hungary, and undertaking workshops in Lithuania, Denmark, Croatia, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Estonia, Finland and Macedonia. These experiences have helped me focus my work on education and design. In 2021 I was selected as part of an artistic research programme at the University of Gothenburg and I decided to move to Sweden.
How did you conquer Gothenburg with your art? What does this exhibition mean to you?
Through the artistic research programme, I had the opportunity to get in touch with the contemporary art scene in Gothenburg. In March 2022 I was given the chance to participate in "Fantasies Around the Hole", a group exhibition at the Thomassen Gallery. The show was about an intervention in a public space, created together with a local artist in January 2021. In Spring I had another opportunity to organise a programme at Rotor2 gallery. In May this year, as part of the university programme, we put on the "Biting My Tongue" exhibition at the Göteborg Konsthall gallery.
What does your exhibition consist of?
The "Biting My Tongue" (Biting my tongue) exhibition presents ten artists working together based on the idea that what isn't said is as important as what is. The artists explore how restriction in the expression of thoughts and personality can be influenced by external factors. The artists use mixed media to address relevant social issues, including loneliness, mental illness, sexualisation and violence, and the feeling of being trapped in systems and structures. The exhibition offers a unique insight into future challenges and opportunities.
My project "Selfhealth Universe" (Selfhealth Universe) explores the relationships between individuals and institutional structures, and the private and the public. The exhibited works are interventions in everyday life that reflect on the relationship between self-care, self-criticism and the loopholes that emerge in a stressed public health system. The installation, consisting of the three objects, The Bicycle-ambulance, The Migrating Sauna and The Winged Creature, presents some DIY well-being solutions and underlying myths. Who do they affect and how? These are questions that challenge the audience.
What are your next steps? New challenges? Motivation?
Direct contact is a crucial part of my work, establishing connections and access routes that facilitate different readings of the same scenario. I’m interested in didactics, which means the ways in which the same situation can be perceived and take on different meanings, and how from there the possibilities of involvement can be expanded. My next two projects consist of a pedagogical workshop for school students in a suburb of Gothenburg, and in September I’ll be participating in the Gothenburg art biennial with a project in which we’ll intervene and re-signify a sailing boat.
What is your day-to-day life like? Is every day different?
I get up quite early. I check my calendar in the morning and go over the tasks for the day. I usually spend some time reading and do some physical activity that helps me stay disciplined. Depending on my active projects, each process requires a particular time and organisation in order to meet certain objectives. It’s crucial to adapt my schedules and make sure they're compatible with the other people involved, so every day is different. I enjoy observing my environment, exploring different contexts, changing my goal, and when I’ve got a clear idea I try and put it to the test, but it almost never comes out as I imagined, and I love that.
I’ve had the opportunity to work with artists, architects, sociologists, activists, engineers, nurses.... It’s very enriching to build bridges between different contexts. I enjoy continuing to learn about issues that impact people’s daily lives, such as education, sports, urban planning, design and other ways of reflecting and imagining the world, understanding the perspectives of adolescents, migrants, or public health system users. The projects Foreigner Bodies (Fredericia, Denmark 2017), Invisible Tales (Villars sur Ollon, Switzerland 2019), and Selfhealth Universe (Gothenburg, Sweden 2023) address these topics.
How has Universidad Europea played a role in your professional development?
It has been crucial. It has facilitated my professional development. I received a grant to work on the presentation of a pavilion in Shenzhen, China, then I was offered a scholarship to work there for five months. I was also fortunate enough to start and organise "HandsThinking" for several years, which is a self-managed curatorial project in which us students selected artists and architects from the professional environment to come and offer workshops at the school. It was such an amazing way to design and organise our own education!
I had teachers with incredibly bright careers and that opens up so many possibilities for you to imagine the professional world.
What advice would you give to a student at Universidad Europea?
My experience is unique, but it’s important that everyone tries to do some inner work and see what they really want. They should listen to their inner calling and be self-critical. Don’t go for the most comfortable option, look at all the means and tools that the university offers and that we don’t even know about, reflect on the fact that it might be a bit more challenging, but it will lead to greater long-term satisfaction. I talk about that in the exhibition, that even if something is comfortable, it doesn’t necessarily mean it does us any good.