martillo neumático’s inflatable installation colonizes 16th-century courtyard in bilbao

martillo neumático transforms museum courtyard

On the occasion of Bilbao’s 2022 Gau Zuria (White Night) festival, which coincided with the 722^nd jubilee of Bilbao City Foundation, 28 artistic interventions transformed the Basque capital’s urban landscape with captivating installations, and light and sound displays. Among these was Martillo Neumático’s ephemeral Cuerpo Gris (Grey Body), an imposing, inflated installation which winds through and engulfs the courtyard of the 16^th-century building that houses the Sacred Art Museum.

the installation was created for Bilbao’s 2022 Gau Zuria (White Night) festival

an imposing series of winding routes and cavities

Martillo Neumático, a young Spanish collective whose work seeks to alter the usual dynamics of urban spaces, produce this site-specific intervention that spreads over the central garden of the former Convento de la Encarnación. Within a few minutes, an imposing organic volume, composed of three tangent pieces of variable diameters, was inflated. Summing more than 120 meters of lineal length and reaching a height of up to six meters, the structure colonizes the museum cloister. Cuerpo Gris’ continuous, slinky, and soft body follows the main axis of the courtyard, disrupting the arcading verandah’s repetitive language and the carved stones’ rigid tectonic. It unfolds in space, winding between the elements of the garden and encircling the lily fountain which remains as an unaffected central symbolic element. 

the imposing structure encircles the lily fountain, an unaffected central symbolic element

cuerpo gris disrupts the 16th-century architecture

Following a detailed study of the site and a handcrafted production of the patronage, Cuerpo Gris is able to adapt to the cloister’s topography. Rooted in the ground, it ties the boxwood bushes and absorbs the centenary olive tree in its twists.

Cuerpo Gris adapts to the cloister’s topography

the monumental volume alters the dynamic of the museum courtyard

visitors are engulfed and invited to interact with the winding inflated volume

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the monumental scale confronts the human body with a strange presence

it ties the boxwood bushes and absorbs the centenary olive tree in its twists

it is composed of three tangent pieces of variable diameters, which sum more than 120 meters of lineal length and reach a height of up to six meters

Cuerpo Gris' continuous, slinky, and soft body follows the main axis of the courtyard

project info:

name: Cuerpo Gris
designer: Martillo Neumático

team: Mon Cano, Iñigo Barrón, Jerome Lorente, Roman Sost

collaborators: Inés Miño, Ana Moure, Cesar Fuertes, Tarino Cano, Patricia Salazar

photography: Antonio Bouzas

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions’ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: ravail khan | designboom