Furniture and objects polished to perfection rest on islands that rise on circular platforms. A frozen forest emerges behind an armchair with its cushions arranged in zodiacal order. A tank invites you to submerge and defrost and an oven begins to crackle if we dare to go beyond the obvious and look at it with a virtual reality device. Once placed over our eyes, the pristine whiteness of that environment reminiscent of the set of “2001, a Space Odyssey”, will reveal a Hitchcockian staircase, a perfect storm will be unleashed.
Objects destined for alchemy rest on various shelves and a drink of Absinthe will invite you to release your senses. The furniture contains phrases from the philosopher Byung – Chul Han arranged in a circular manner, to read them it is necessary to accompany the movement with the body. “O”, the designer’s sample Laura Orcoyenone of the most important Argentine interior designers, is a visual and sensory banquet.
Although this exhibition in which the artists Elba Bairon, Leonardo Batistelli, Martina Quesada and Esmeralda Escasany participate is not like anything Orcoyen has done, a search for unity can be traced in his work. Its “Laura O” space was for decades the place chosen to equip a home, an assorted and charming tribute to general stores where you could find everything from a jewel piece of furniture, to an ashtray, or the perfect utensils, all items in one same place.
Today in “O” you can find architecture, interior design, astrology, philosophy and games in the form of activations in which Laura’s children also participate. The invitation to a new beginning that is also continuity in this talk with NOTICIAS.
News: In this exhibition there is virtual reality, sensory experiences, alchemy and a return to nature. How did you put all that together into a concept?
Laura Orcoyen: It was part of a process in which I did not want to bet on the permanence of a collection but on an ephemeral experience, I felt the internal need for a change. With my husband, Pablo Sánchez Elías, who is an architect, we bought a place on the Paraná River and began conservation work on the ravine. My first contact with the world of work was landscaping, but later I did it more intellectually than physically. . We worked a lot together and something in common was created between architecture, interior design and design. Then came the creation of “Laura O” 25 years ago and I really wanted to get out of that structure, but I was having a hard time. I thought my inspiration had gone and I decided to make some movements from everyday life. Nothing very special, change your vacation spot, for example, give yourself a different look. A summer without socializing in Punta, going to another area, changing the rhythm a little, the landscape, the people. Upon returning, this sample emerged. I needed a movement that would connect me to other things and I could say something new. The concept came together in one day, but it took us exactly nine months to develop it.
News: Is it more difficult to carry a pregnancy to term or a sample to its inauguration?
Orcoyen: (Laughs) I would tell you that I was quite lucky in both things. I had very easy pregnancies and I also enjoyed this creative process a lot, despite some difficulties that arose in a difficult year where, for example, at certain times we could not find materials or the price changed. Maybe I think there is something in common, I find the processes easier than giving birth and taking charge. But it’s already out and everything that follows is a surprise, a great enigma that I love.
News: There is a topic that is always in the conversation and that is whether the work has its own weight or must be thought about in terms of those who inhabit it. Author’s architecture versus a more humanistic vision. What is your position?
Orcoyen: I think about everything based on needs, then comes the way to materialize it. Because we are talking about the relationship of the work with respect to people, whoever carries out the work must have the ability to listen and observe so that it is as appropriate as possible to the needs of the people. I do not agree with making works that refer only to the author and not to the person who receives them. I do something I call PET, “Space Therapy”.
News: Let’s improvise a session, what would it be like?
Orcoyen: Sometimes it can be just one meeting or a longer process. In a TEP I involve a lot of the people who live in the house. I’m not interested in working for a ghost, setting up a house, leaving it full of things and leaving is not something that motivates me. I like to get to know the family, know their habits, share with them. Likewise, there is also the counterpart, not all people like that, because some do not want to expose themselves, in a PET scan you show a lot about yourself, who you are and how you live. That nudity is very beautiful, because the more honest you are, the more your house will respond to you and you to it, that connection is beautiful. When you see a person uncomfortable with their house, you don’t want to go in.
News: Despite the fact that in recent years our homes have become areas where we spend a lot of time. Do you feel that in some areas decorative art is still considered a minor art?
Orcoyen: I, for example, do not call it decoration, in a dictionary I read that it was adding something unnecessary, for example decorating a cake and I said: “I don’t do that.” That concept of interior design as a minor art is still valid, I think the mistake was separating it from architecture. With Pablo, my husband, the interesting thing is that we always work together from the well, there has to be a very deep dialogue between architecture, interior design, landscaping and the person, everything has to be very articulated. It is not about making a work and filling it with things, but about living it. Sometimes just by making small movements, changing the location of some objects you do magic, it is not a question of budget.
News: There are clients who are very classic and others who are not. What was the craziest project you were asked to do?
Orcoyen: Well, now I have an order for a house accessory, it’s an erotic games room. I’ll have to start researching, I have to consult with people accustomed to these topics and also start having a little fun. I like that it is subtle, that it escapes the crude, it is super interesting to get into a new topic that challenges you, it is something playful. In that sense, with this exhibition I am also going in that direction, I don’t want to do things that are so fixed and structured. I want experiences with more humor, more play, places that can move.
News: His exhibition is organized based on different islands and levels in which the abstract and the concrete, the physical and the virtual, combine. Is grace in the journey?
Orcoyen: Getting away from the concrete a little and allowing yourself to float on different levels as we do here seems interesting to me. This project is called O because of its circularity, it is the end and the beginning, what culminates to begin again being something else. We are in a moment in which reality and virtuality are on the same plane, we no longer know what is real and what is not. Sometimes you don’t remember if you saw someone live or on social media, there are people who know your places, know if you changed your haircut and only saw you on Instagram. The experience ends with a drawer inscribed with Byung-Chul Han’s phrase “Farewell does not dilute the experience of what has been.” There is no end, everything is a beginning.
