During his Fellowship at Civitella Ranieri / WOJR Architecture Prize, Alejandro Haiek unveiled images of "Industries of Nature", the award-winning artistic narrative that explores Civitella castle's context and environment and observes how nature and industry work in parallel to form the traditional Umbrian landscape. The intervention was presented not as an art object, but as a documentation of the dynamic exchange between narratives, topographies, and shared resources, overlapping the Civitella Ranieri artist community with local farmers, automobile robotics technicians, engineers and producers.
The challenge of the intervention was to create a community engagement process in just over a month, weaving the local understanding of geology and topography into industrial production to harness the capabilities of improvisation and collective making.
Haiek describes his process as ‘fast assemblage/slow architecture’, often beginning with meeting local laborers and fabricators with the aim of resulting in hybrid practices and processes of abstract thinking. The work was developed through 3 typologies: a land art intervention in the perimeters of the castle collaborating with local farmers, an immersive installation that hybridizes the artisan traditions of the Umbrian Povera culture with the technologies of the Umbertide automotive industry, and, a multidimensional exhibition through knowledge- and talent cartographies that celebrate the network of collaborative relationships weaved during the period of the residency.
In 2018, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation partnered with WOJR to launch a new prize for architects, which offers a six-week residency at Civitella’s 15th century castle in Umbria, Italy, along with a $15,000 fund for the construction of an architectural installation on the castle grounds. The first two recipients were Alejandro Haiek and Catie Newell.
