Pablo Bronstein

Pablo Bronstein’s Plaza Monument is a proposal for classical piazza. Drawing from the Italian traditions of perspective and geometric purity, his quotes range from Renaissance design, to modern masters such as Aldo Rossi. Executed in watery ink, Bronstein’s plan conveys his monument with an ephemeral elegance, framing the imposing as delicate opus. Conceiving the public space as theatre, Bronstein curtains his erection with a decorative frieze; the subtle angular shadow infringes on the arena with an impending drama reminiscent of De Chirico.

Pablo Bronstein uses architecture as a means to engage with power: of history, monuments, and the built environment. Using pen and ink on paper, his acutely drafted drawings capture an archival romance of a grand age, a nostalgic longing for the imposing and imperial. Adopting the styles of various architects and movements, his elaborate designs become plausible inventions, both paying homage to and critiquing the emblems of civil engineering. In Elevation and Interior, Bronstein’s plan borders on abstraction. Depicting the history of architecture from a simple hole in the ground, to a hut, Byzantine temple, Baroque cathedral, enshrined in the cold industrial shell of a modernist shed, Bronstein dissects the lineage of ideas and ideologies, all pastiched together with a dandyish pomo flair.

Pablo Bronstein works primarily with 1980s postmodernist and 18th century post-revolutionary French architecture. Finding parallels between their decadent pretensions and their demonstration of precise moments in history via formalist structure, these periods, for Bronstein, define what it is to be a citizen, embracing the heroic as a uniting social value. Basing his Monument… on Jean-Pierre Louis Laurent Houel’s The Storm of the Bastille, Bronstein gives the famous painting a facelift a la pomo architect Michael Graves. Using Graves trademark pastel tones and stylized patterns, Bronstein authors an alternate history: breathtakingly impressive, and hauntingly crypt-like.

Pablo Bronstein’s 4 Facades is an original sketch for an architectural installation. Intervening with life-sized space, the installation posed a skyline physically cut out of a wall. Considering the drawings as ‘dress rehearsals’ to the final piece, Bronstein approaches architecture as a performative entity. Presenting popular buildings as pared down symbols, Bronstein plays with ideas of scale, his tiny blue prints framing the colossal as minimalist suggestion.