#futurisms

Deep in the Cantabrian Mountains, some 150 kilometres away from his hometown Oviedo in northern Spain, a young Joaquín Vaquero Palacios (1900-1998) used to travel around on horseback with his father, one of the founders of the Hidroeléctrica del Cantábrico company (now part of the EDP group). Here, immersed in resplendent scenery, they scouted for a location for what would become the second largest hydroelectric dam in Europe at the time.

But this was to be no ordinary dam. In the 1950s, Vaquero Palacios – now a trained architect, painter and sculptor – was entrusted by the company’s management to use his creative mind to enhance the environment and condition of its facilities. Over the coming decades, he created some of the finest examples of 20th-century modernist Spanish industrial buildings, integrating technology, architecture, design and art.

Fast forward to 2018 and Joaquín Vaquero Ibáñez, the architect grandson of Vaquero Palacios, who some 18 months ago decided to bring this project to light. ‘This body of work represents the futuristic vision from a very complicated period of Spanish history (the time after the Second World War and the end of the Civil War in Spain). People were able to break local barriers to impose intelligence, sensibility, modernity and an advanced vision of things,’ he says.

Madrid photographer Luis Asín was commissioned to create a new series of visuals to document the dams’ pharaonic dimensions. These images, alongside a selection of unseen old models, original sketches, period photographs and industrial objects, are now part of the exhibition (and accompanying book), ‘Joaquín Vaquero Palacios – The Beauty of the Colossal, Asturias, 1954-1980’, on view at the Museo ICO in Madrid.

Next on XLE.LIFE's New Terms 2024 list is the very broad arena of Futurisms. I've posted this in two sections so far:

XLE.LIFE: New Terms 2024: Futurisms--Part I: Intro >>

A very brief and loose introduction to futurisms with a similarly loose timeline, in case you've never heard this term in your life!

XLE.LIFE: New Terms 2024: Futurisms--Part II: A List of Emergent Futurisms >>

The more exciting part of the futurisms research--a sprawling, wild list of 235 (and counting) genres of futurisms, including several I've named or predicted. Looking at this list, especially in an array, really makes me feel some type of way. I hope it makes you feel a way also. What a time to be alive.