Refugi, de Domènec

A Refugi, Domènec presents in dialogue historical scale models of refuges from the Centre Excursionista de Catalunya (CEC), created to study the structural resistance of mountain constructions, alongside the sculpture Dos refugis i el membre fantasma (2020).In this work, the artist juxtaposes the models of Ted Kaczynski's "Unabomber" cabin and Le Cabanon by Le Corbusier, archetype of modern utopias of housing. Between the two, Domènec leaves empty the space corresponding to Henry David Thoreau's cabin on the shore of Walden Pond. This void, conceived as a "phantom limb", evokes the memory of a utopia based on natural life and peaceful disobedience, in contrast with the violence of Kaczynski, who sent mail bombs between 1978 and 1995.For Panoràmic, the artist expands this reflection with the scale models from the CEC's collection and a selection of photographs of mountain constructions that show the refuge both as a space of isolation and idealised life and as a hiding place or place of escape. The project thus questions modern utopias and approaches the refuge as a space of dissidence, desertion and resistance in the face of urban alienation and contemporary mechanisms of control.