This publication of the Spanish artist David Bestué explores the work of the Spanish engineer exiled in Mexico, Félix Candela, by using poem-diagrams to propose an analogy between the language of engineering and poetry and turning to physical terms to describe emotions. This project is a result of the artist’s residency in Mexico in 2013 with de_sitio. With various publications, expositions and investigative works already done around Félix Candela, and this year witnessing particularly prolific revisions of his work in Mexico, this publications offers a new point of view to understand Candela’s legacy, inviting us to embark on new paths for exploring the structural relationship between static architectural forms and bodies in movement. Bestué invites 8 people: a dancer, an opera singer, an acrobat, a bodybuilder, a fakir, a yogi, a mime and a poet to carry out a series of actions that the artist then converts into structural poems that, in his own words, can to be understood as “(…) some words written on the emptiness of flesh”.

*This project was made possible with the support of: Graham Foundation, the Embassy of Spain in Mexico and the Ramon Llull Institute.

David Bestué (Barcelona, 1980) is an artist interested in the relationship between art and architecture. From 2003 to 2009 he published with Tenov Enric Miralles and previously he had published with Formalismo Puro on themes surrounding Spanish architecture of the 20th century. He has exhibited individually as well: Aproximación parcial al trabajo de un arquitecto, Sala Montcada de la Caixa (Barcelona, 2005) and the Arkitekturmuseet (Estocolmo, 2008); Formalismo puro, Fundación Marcelino Botín (Santander, 2009); Piedras y poetas, in the Estrany de la Mota gallery (Barcelona, 2013). Bestué has also been a resident at Gasworks (London, 2010) and de_xitio (CDMX, 2013). de_sitio is a non-profit platform founded in 2011. It does not have a fixed location and it is dedicated to the conceptualization, development and promotion of contemporary art projects. De_sitio seeks to expand the possibilities of collaboration in distinct contexts with diverse organizations and individuals with the intention of promoting a continuous and consistent exchange in the development of ideas and concrete research that are shared in distinct formats such as publications, residencies, exhibitions and other public programs. Focussing on the process of this work, de_sitio is a flexible and critical platform, prioritizing projects that are developed through dialogue.

www.desitio.net