Far from Nostalgia

The 2023–2024 Out of the Box exhibition series is dedicated to the work of Argentinian architect Amancio Williams (1913–1989), a key figure in modern architecture in South America. It follows from an extensive archive of proposals produced and reworked by Williams’s office from the 1940s through the 1980s. The archive, which includes drawings, photographs, correspondence, and models, was donated to the CCA by the Williams family in 2020.

Claudia Shmidt’s reading of the archive focuses on letters both sent and received by Amancio Williams. These letters, written to politicians, leading cultural institutions, and influential architects, help to situate Williams’s practice and elaborate on his persistence in bringing his projects to life. By tracing the course of his correspondence alongside a selection of drawings and publications, the development of Williams’s theories begins to come to the fore.

The series is comprised of three exhibitions: from 23 June to 17 September 2023, Studio Muoto presented a reading of the infrastructural dimension of Williams’s work; and from 15 February to 5 May 2024, Mauricio Pezo and Sofia von Ellrichshausen offer an interpretation of what is likely Williams’s most widely known project, the Casa sobre el Arroyo in Mar del Plata.

Curator: Claudia Shmidt
Project direction: Francesco Garutti
Curatorial research and development: Megan Marin with Anna García Molina
Archive processing: Catherine Jacob
Graphic design: Our Polite Society, Hamburg / Montréal / Stockholm, with Jan Egbers Design: Anh Truong, Sébastien Larivière Conservation: Emilie Demers, Anne Gauthier, Daphnée Bouchard Installation: Catherine Labonté, Michael Eddy, Marie-Hélène Rolko, Philippe Caron-Lefebvre