Research

  • Giving Voice to the Río de La Plata Basin
  • GRANTEE
    Bruno Borgna, Mauricio Corbalán & Pío Torroja
    GRANT YEAR
    2023

m7red, "Port of La Barranca, Villa Diamante," 2018. Drone photograph, 10 x 8 in. Courtesy m7red, Villa Diamante, Entre Rios. Photo: Teo Bonilla and Pablo Linietsky

The La Plata River Basin is the world’s largest drinking water reservoir, the second largest basin in South America, the connection between five countries, and the supplier of the largest global food production center. This project registers the different constructive layers that give existence to the basin, from its geologic origin to its interlacing ecosystems and historic formation. In a changing world where basins are key, architecture can provide tools for its understanding and prospection. These characteristics are not random: they are the fruit of human and nonhuman ecosystems and historical construction processes. Articulations, assemblies, superpositions, symmetries, structures, redesigns, and patterns are thought models that architecture and its spatial knowledge can give to the new hybrid world of geo-bio-historical urbanism.

Bruno Borgna is a multimedia artist, essayist, and cultural manager from Buenos Aires, studying Multimedia Arts at the National Arts University. He has participated in collective exhibits in Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, and Spain. In 2019 he was awarded the essay category prize in the FAUNA festival with his piece “Spiritual Simulation,” which was also exhibited in Circular Reparations: The long game of patience, curated by PAN Galería, Chile. His piece Music for Data Packets was shown in the Forma y Sustancia Performance Festival (Guatemala) and the electronic music festival IN-SONORA 22, Spain. Borgna’s work deals in the relationship between spirituality, power, cultural grids, and technology. Since 2021, he collaborates and assists with m7red.

Mauricio Corbalan is a member and cofounder of the independent research and activism group m7red. In 2020, he was awarded the Prince Claus Laureate in the architecture category. Along with his colleague, Pío Torroja, they have presented works in Argentina, Korea, Sweden, United States, Turkey, Netherlands, Brazil, Ghana, and the United Kingdom. They have collaborated with local and international actors and institutions such as Teddy Cruz, United States; Magnus Ercisson, Sweden; Alejandro Galliano, Argentina; and more, in the creation of theoretical frameworks and their practical application for complex architectural, sociopolitical, and urbanistic scenarios. Some of their key projects are Mil Cuencas and Que Pasa Riachuelo, a book and public monitoring platform for the Matanza-Riachuelo basin, and their work in the creation of an information system for the Tecnopolis Sanitary Park during the COVID pandemic.

Pío Torroja is a member and cofounder of the independent research and activism group m7red. In 2020, they were awarded the Prince Claus Laureate in the Architecture category. Along with his colleague, Mauricio Corbalán, they have presented works in Argentina, Korea, Sweden, United States, Turkey, Netherlands, Brazil, Ghana, and the United Kingdom. They have collaborated with local and international actors and institutions such as Teddy Cruz, United States; Magnus Ercisson, Sweden; Alejandro Galliano, Argentina; in the creation of theoretical frameworks and their practical application for complex architectural, sociopolitical, and urbanistic scenarios. Some of their key projects are Mil Cuencas and Que Pasa Riachuelo, a book and public monitoring platform for the Matanza-Riachuelo basin, and their work in the creation of an information system for the Tecnopolis Sanitary Park during the COVID pandemic.