Alcala31’s Extreme Makeover by Lluís Alexandre Blanco.

When you think of an art gallery, what comes first to mind? White plastered walls, artificial light and not much else? Yeah, me too. Known as the ‘white cube’ phenomenon, this has been the dominant mode of displaying art for the last century.

Yet with installations and large-scale mixed media works more the norm now than, say, oil paintings, it feels fair to say the traditional blueprint for galleries and museums needs a bit of an update.

Just look at Sydney Modern, the extension of AGNSW that opened in 2022. Comprising two buildings and a series of interlocking pavilions connected by an art garden, the gallery is far from a white box. There’s a rammed earth wall, plenty of natural light and even a spectacular art space underground in a decommissioned WWII oil tank.

Bio-Resin Dream: AGNSW Sydney Modern Building Gallery Shop by Akin Atelier.

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But what if you didn’t have the budget? This was the question architect and curator Lluis Alexandre Blanco considered when he started the exhibition design for ‘Everything I See Will Outlive Me’ by the late Spanish artist Juan Muñoz at Madrid’s Alcalá 31 Hall.

How does one just go from a simple exhibition design to an “extreme makeover” of an art institution? Well, it’s all in your perspective. “The intense interaction of the art installations with architecture prompted the need to devise a strategy to recover certain lost spatial qualities of the original building,” Lluis explains.

Utilising the resources and budget allocated for a temporary exhibition, Lluis carried out a recovery of the original architecture, rethinking access and circulation, to offer a permanent improvement to the building. As Lluis elaborates: “[The project] asks whether we can redirect material and economic resources devoted to ephemeral interventions to create longer-lasting spatial impact.”

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Designed by Antonio Palacios in 1943, the space is located at Madrid Region’s Cultural Department headquarters in the former Banco Mercantil building. Rented out since 2002, the space has undergone multiple interventions to transform the unique architectural footprint slowly but surely into the plagued contemporary “white box”.

This interference over the years neutralised the natural charm of the building and hid some of its most characteristic elements. Lluis looked to reverse these actions—a large arched window was opened, flooding the space with natural light and engaging with street outside, marble-based pillars are exposed, and on the upper floor, curtains have been added to gently indicate circulation and separate exhibition and administrative spaces.

Lluis’ act of essentially editing the building has created a dialogue between the reclaimed architectural elements and Juan Munoz’s work, offering an excellent backdrop to the contemporary artist’s installation. Is the boring box so out? I hope so.

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[Images courtesy of Lluis Alexandre Blanco. Photography by José Hevia.]