Rozana Montiel Architecture Studio Presents Pavilion for the Biennale of Architecture and Landscape in Versailles

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Stand Up for the Seas! is an installation designed by Rozana Montiel Architecture Studio for the exhibition Terre! Land in Sight of the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine in the framework of the 2nd Edition of the Biennale d'Architecture et du Paysage d'Île-de-France (Bap, 2022) in Versailles. The piece is made of recycled materials (steel, nets and soil) and invites you to walk inside a seine fishing net to experience what it feels like to be trapped. Stand Up for the Seas! is presented as a stand against the conflict of pollution of the seas.

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Three architects, winners of the Global Awards for Sustainable Architecture, were each invited to design a 1:1 scale installation that would answer a crucial question of our times: How can we reinvent our habitat in the face of the climate emergency and the depletion of our resources? The theme proposed by Jana Revedin (founding President of the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture and curator of the exhibition), and Marie-Hélène Contal (Director of the Cultural Development Department of the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine and co-curator of the exhibition) aims to address the connection between the Old and the New Continents.

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The installation is presented as a reflection on the sea currents that brought European ships to the American coasts. Stand up for the Seas! is presented as a pavilion that invites you to walk inside a purse seine fishing net in order to understand, through a play of scales between the net and a suspended wire boat, the magnitude of the global conflict of the pollution of the seas. The seine nets are enormous and catch everything, without distinction. By inhabiting the inside of the net, the viewer experiences what it feels like to be trapped.

This installation was built with few recycled elements (steel, nets and floor). A sculpture-like structure was designed as a place to climb, play, meet, walk, sit, rest, contemplate and reflect. 100% recycled steel recovered by Gerdau Corsa from landfills near Mexico City was used. In addition, we collaborated with CARE (Advanced Recycling Centre Efficient) to produce the polymeric floor and Máscaras de Alambre, the artists behind the wire boat.

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Transforming the ordinary into something extraordinary requires commitment. We believe in creating a sense of identity and belonging through new materials, textures and atmospheres in dialogue with the local context. Increasingly, waste must be re-signified and transformed into a resource. For this installation we experimented in creating a new material by shredding fishing nets - a macro-plastic - with micro-plastics distilled from sand and the ocean, and fused them together to make a polymeric floor, which is a useful building material.
- Rozana Montiel Architecture Studio

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The installation is accompanied by twelve panels that tell the story of what is happening in the seas and describe in a playful way our proposal on how to counteract it. The objects on these panels were collected during clean-up "faenas" on Mexican beaches organised by Sustenta and the HeelHabilidadesAC Foundation in collaboration with Manolo Ruiz and Alfredo Blázquez.

This pavilion will be moved to new locations in order to continue the reflection on the pollution of the seas around the world. For more information visit Rozana Montiel Architecture Studio.