Paper Building is a site-specific, ephemeral architecture on the facade of the former Cima Norma factory. In Paper Building the application of white paper to the external facade of Cima Norma is complete; it annuls the history of industrial architecture to discover a new identity through the paper interruptions at each door and window.

By interpreting the theme of Foreignness, the Paper Building project gives emotional intimacy back to the architecture; it removes the historical facade from the public view to generate a loss of identity through the change of the original context. With a change in the conditions in which they once lived, a building, a person or a community struggle to maintain their own identity, having been forced to adapt to the new conditions. Referring to the curiosity of children when unwrapping chocolates or sweets, and to the work “Passing Through”, 1956, by Saburo Murakami of the Gutai Group, the windows and doors of the former factory will be opened by the forceful tearing of the paper by the public and inhabitants during the inauguration of the Fondazione. Paper Building creates a space in which people can feel free and that is resolved with the participation of the public as it undergoes an experience. By referring back to the ephemeral Baroque architectures of Bernini, which were specifically made for a limited time in order to celebrate some historical event, Daniel González makes large-scale public works as social catalysts and for bringing people together. “An ephemeral building allows a radical alteration of architectural structures and so influences our experiences through an object, one that is linked to a specific time limit, after which there remains a record of it and, above all, the fact experienced”1. With the use of white paper for Paper Building, the artist has created a space for a double interpretation of the material used: on the one hand the reset of the history of the former Cima Norma factory’s architecture and, on the other, the infinite possibilities in the near future. For the citizens and those who experience the newly-established Fondazione, Paper Building represents the freedom to analyze the architecture of the former factory through one’s own intimate and personal experience: a catalyst for the creation of a relationship between the architectural space and the visitor.

The artist thanks Franco Marinotti, Giovanni Casella Piazza, Stefano Dell’Orto, Edgardo Mannhart, Al Fadhil, Noah Stolz, Winteler, Cham Paper Group, Horacio Ocampo, Natascia Urietti, Giorgio Musso, Emilio Chiappini, Monica Delfoc, Samuele Urietti, Anna Musso, Tre Valli Civil Protection, compagnia 15 (Biasca – Bassa Leventina), Radio Fiume Ticino, Severino Rigozzi and Tre Valli Soccorso, Metalocus Architecture Magazine, Viafarini, the sposnsors of La Fabbrica del Cioccolato foundation, the inhabitants of Torre-Dangio and the residents in Cima Norma who shared e supported and cooperated with the  project.

Images: Daniel González, Paper Building, 2016, white billboard paper, glue, wood, zip ties 890 square meters – 9579.880 sq ft , Fondazione La Fabbrica del Cioccolato. Courtesy of the artist.  Credits: Carola Merello.