Instant City

Mardones, Roberto

—1971

In 1971, during the last years of the Franco dictatorship, the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) held its seventh congress on the island of Ibiza. What had been an eminently professional event until then was transformed into a multimedia festival. Over the course of three days, from 14–16 October, artistic interventions, concerts and discussions took place that addressed issues not only related to design, but also to architecture, urban planning, artistic production and diverse philosophical issues. The congress voluntarily decamped from its formal site, occupying hotel rooms and opening itself to the population of the bay of Sant Miquel. Many people attending the island for the event stayed at Instant City, an inflatable and ephemeral pneumatic structure that ended up becoming an enclave where new forms of communal living were rehearsed.