The formwork and the mold, the poetry of the footprint: Rachel Whiteread vs. Jorge Otero-Pailos

Abstract

In architecture, and also in sculpture, the creation of the formwork (or mold), it’s vital, from the technical to the aesthetic. And in the works of Rachel Whiteread, and Jorge Otero-Pailos also, the mold is capital. In the first, as something ephemeral that is part of the creation process; and in the second as part of the work itself.

Whiteread deals indirectly with architecture by executing works that solidify the space, containing the emptiness.

Otero-Pailos, as well, deals directly with architecture, through the preservation of historical buildings and monuments, achieving as a result of this work, an artistic work that develops in the conceptual search for the solidification of the atmosphere, developing this as a cultural object.