On July 27, 2020, María Virginia Millán participated in an interview with journalist Graciela Beltrán through her live program via IGTV to talk about aspects of Caracas’ anniversary celebration. Enlace Arquitectura shared a video titled “Celebrate the Complete City” through its social media networks, inviting people to rethink the way the city is perceived, and to consider the relevance of celebrating Caracas´ anniversary with respect to the barrios.
As part of the celebration of Caracas 453th anniversary, María Virginia Millán participated in the International Panel of urban transformation experiences, July 25, 2020. The program was coordinated and organized by Síudad.
"The Caracas that I see" was the premise of an online meeting entitled "The city we produce and reproduce through language" held on July 24, 2020. Cheo Carvajal, Rogmy Armas, and María Virginia Millán shared ideas about the city, the way citizens relate to it, and how a distinction is created, through language, between the real city, the one that exists, and the city we recognize as in the imaginary.
In the framework of the exhibition
Complete City | La Palomera: recognition and celebration
This event is presented as part of the exhibition “Complete City: La Palomera, acknowledgement and celebration” and the program Integration Process Caracas. Over the course of several months, various creative experiences were articulated, conceived from the barrio La Palomera as a space of learning, participation and dialogue. Actions and artistic practices also incorporated traditional cultural manifestations.
On Saturday May 23, 2020, an event was held on the virtual platform Zoom to celebrate, remembrer and reflect. It was part of the exhibition "Complete City: La Palomera, recognition and celebration" at Hacienda La Trinidad Parque Cultural, and the Integration Process Caracas IPC program.
Technologically complex building systems presented in the guise of innovation by the "developed" world's industry are certainly admired in the Global South. And yet in spite of the aspirational tendency to copy and appropriate all things new that come from the "north", the brick (or block) continues to be the most suitable and frequent way for people and communities to build in Latin America.
The exhibition includes the work, experiences and lessons of the Integration process Caracas program that began in the informal settlement La Palomera in November 2018. Its objective has been to invite all citizens to get to know La Palomera through its culture, its sancochos (a Venezuelan stew), its spaces and its people. Audiences are also invited to question the negative stigma that exist with respect to the barrio and to see it with a renewed gaze, so that it may be discovered, understood and recognized as a living and vital place for the city.
Enlace Arquitectura has been invited to the 17th International Architecture Exhibition Biennale di Venezia 2020, scheduled to open August 29, 2021. Curator Hashim Sarkis has chosen "How will we live together" as this year´s cental focus: “We need a new spatial contract. In the context of widening political divides and growing economic inequalities, we call on architects to imagine spaces in which we can generously live together." Enlace Arquitectura is honored and grateful to be a part of this prestigious celebration of current practice.
Enlace Arquitectura participates in “Views toward the Transformation of Maracaibo,” which represents the the First Congress organized by the Municipality of Maracaibo. Sergio Dos Santos presents the experience of the project Sabana Grande Boulevard Pavement built between 2009 and 2011 and commissioned by PDVSA La Estancia. The presentation is part of an ensemble of reflections on strategies to improve the livelihood of citizens through significant urban interventions.
Elisa is invited to speak at the BEAT Talk session of Wednesday, October 23, 2019 at the offices of Hariri Pontarini Architects in Toronto about the work of her studio Enlace Arquitectura. BEAT is a non-for-profit organization that works in collaboration with architects to provide a platform for promoting equality within the profession, through networking and leadership opportunities.