Open Work: Josep Lluís Mateo

The practice of architecture involves transforming needs, ideas, dreams, and even delusions into physical and material objects.

A world without architecture would be unintelligible.

This exhibition shows that process in our work, along with the tools we use. These are, at first, texts and images; classical elements of media for dissemination and knowledge, now transformed but still present in the digital world that surrounds us.

The practical production of a project, in our case, begins on paper, where hand and mind align to indicate the beginning of the path toward the object. Imprecise drawings that are later digitally transformed and gradually gain precision, aided by the vision of the object in volume and space through models, a clear necessity for us. Some external, fictional views are also produced, but they are always attempts, not cinematic realities. Finally, matter appears—the world close to our sensations, where detail becomes paramount. At that point, observing with precision, almost like using a microscope, becomes indispensable.

This set of tools surrounding our work is what this exhibition aims to show.

The organization is roughly chronological, but it does not aim to define a trajectory. Rather, they are seen as loose traces that mark footprints, without concern for their direction at present. They intend to convey that we approach our work as an open work, in each case yet to be discovered.

Josep Lluís Mateo, 2025