Gowanus Art Center

The REFERENCE for this project is a dear character that until a month ago was still living at the site and I have been photographing for a while, as I took the F train into the city...

I named him PEGASUS because of his little wing and his house on the roof. I even did a little movie (MOOSE YOUTH) in that site - with Pegassus and a 18 year old girl named Madelaine. The last day of the shooting they tore down the whole place and took Pegasus away...

This entry is an hommage to Pegasus and to its TRUNK. A trunk who cleans the canal, absorbing the polluted waters, transforming them into art and a new life for the local community.

The building takes the form of a sea monster, adopting the iridiscent colors of the oil and water pollution the canal is so famous for. Like putting a dress as it comes out from the water. I think I heard that the Gowanus might be the most polluted water way in all North America!

Our monstruos building would have come out of the water and landed in our block, its sticking tail frolicking in the dirty waters in order to clean them.

Artists and art programs have always been great ways to revitalize an area - and rebuild community in the best cases (and gentrify in the not so great cases) - so I really liked the competion brief which emphasized the community aspects of the program.

This area of the Gowanus due to its pollution and its not so desirable consequences is already a hub for the artist community, who found a new of industrial unexploited area still quite affordable...

Will that change after they clean the area and let Whole Foods finally open?? This competition is thiking of alternatives...