Named ‘Salida,’ the pavilion for the VIP room of the latest ARCO fair of contemporary art, held in the IFEMA Madrid grounds, arises in the midst of the current health crisis. A fruit of collaboration between Javier Jiménez Iniesta (Studio Animal), Toni Gelabert, and Gonzalo del Bal, the project works on this context, using a 3-3-meter grid to form a space that naturalizes the safety distance imposed by the pandemic.

The pavilion expresses the desire for collectivity after months of lockdown: the longing for the open air. Slated for replanting elsewhere at the close of the event, a hundred birch trees are positioned on a grid to serve as organic markers organizing connections, in a playful atmosphere crowned by a giant sun in a permanent dusk.