The Swiss Touch in Architecture Miami Edition
Swiss architect Mario Botta talks about glocal, Le Corbusier and his participation in Miami Art Week.
How do you define your aesthetics?
Mario Botta: I don’t. When facing a white canvas and a challenge in my mind, it does not really matter if they call me postmodern, or modernist or something else . . . it does not empower my capacity to operate. We should be free to create as we please, and also evolve, without confining ourselves to our own dictates, a sort of civic disobedience — but toward ourselves!
You work across continents. Do you carry your heritage with you?
MB: To face complexities nowadays, it is essential to be profoundly local. It is a privilege to do so in Switzerland — where I live and have my studio — a land full of history and traditions. That offers references and roots to hold to when working abroad. I feel I am both a citizen of the world and a Swiss citizen. This is neither a contradiction nor a neurosis, but rather a way of absorbing the world through the lenses of my own culture.
What about Swiss architecture?
MB: I had the chance to integrate Le Corbusier’s practice in Paris after my studies in Venice. Unfortunately, this legendary man disappeared right before my arrival. The atmosphere in the office was suddenly gloomy, as we reckoned with the loss of the man that embodied the essence of architecture for 50 years. My first works, with humbleness and great respect, tried to honor his legacy and his practice.
Art Basel is . . .
MB: It is a forum for mental gymnastics, a festival of great spiritual strength behind the aggressiveness of its business culture. The atmosphere is reminiscent of an entertainment park, but its content has real depth. After all, the art on display and the artists who made it interpret and express for us the contradictions of life.
Tell us more about your participation in the fair.
MB: A Swiss beauty and lifestyle brand invited me to reflect on the origins of life and contribute with what they called an Archisculpture to their pavilion within Art Basel. This intervention is conceived as a break from the fair craziness. With its strong cedarwood scent, it hopes to capture the attention of even the most distracted passerby, and its structure, womb-like, is meant as a place of rest, and dialogue.
