Dip 5

A Survey into the World of Artificial Paradises

Pairi-Daêza

Have you ever thought about your own perfect paradise? Almost every single culture in the world has elaborated and depicted through oral descriptions – 

in some cases, images – its own version of this place and the ideal conditions from which supposedly everybody comes and to which only a few go back. This year, by replacing the notion of building with pairi-daêza, the Diploma 5 engineers of artificial paradises made a deep and precise survey of concrete and culturally based paradises that centre on specific groups of people.

From the public and open house in Jeddah, run exclusively by women, where male oppression and domination of public space is discussed, to the infiltration of a former work camp in Shanghai with floating fabric mobiles, to the recreation of rituals related to scent and flowers in Forcalquier, and to all kinds of other paradises composed of fragments and pieces taken from different origins, such as exotic species and materials of all kind that apparently do not match each other because what it is valued most is their abundance and exuberance. Their strange and compulsive nature converts them in bizarre amalgamations of wonders and rarities that form small, rich and inclusive universes as alternatives to the everyday, sad and ordinary environments.

As culturally produced texts, these projects endow meaning upon spaces, because they are fully charged with specific connotations that reflect collective aspirations and longing. They are spaces of perfect conditions that are universally understood, of physical pleasures and eternal good weather. Because the space itself provides everything needed, they therefore form a counter-representation of everyday reality, misery and privation. They reveal obsessions and desires, concerns, collective anxieties and wishes, making explicit the shared ethos of the communities that dream them. 

Unit Staff

Cristina Díaz Moreno
Efrén García Grinda
Nerea Calvillo

Guests

John Ng, Emory Smith, Pablo Zamorano,  , Barbara-Ann Campbell-Lange, Javier Castañón, Shin Egashira, David Greene, Kostas Grigoriadis, Eugene Han, Nuria Lombardero, Jonas Lundberg, Monia De Marchi , Ricardo de Ostos, Christopher Pierce, Adiam Sertzu, Brett Steele, Marco Vanucci , Elantha Evans, Daniel Fernández, Fredrik Hellberg, Carlos Jiménez, Lara Lesmes, Jorge Sainz, Maud Sanciaume , Rob Taylor,  , Thanks to, Sayaka Namba, John Ng, Mike Weinstock, Pei-Yao Wu.