Ambush #17: Mathieu Mercier

einaidea invites participants to join Ambush #17: Mathieu Mercier from 2-7 February, an intensive workshop where we will collectively explore the “birdhouse” as an object halfway between sculpture, ecology, architecture and more-than-human design.

The habitat and habits of the birds at the Collserola Natural Park will serve as catalysts for the design of various housing models, combining techniques such as carpentry, 3D printing, and the reuse and recycling of found materials. The installation of the resulting houses —in various locations that will be collectively determined during the process— at Eina Bosc will interact with the dynamics of the unique ecosystem of Collserola, one of the few European natural parks located in an urban environment.

Mathieu Mercier's practice is rooted in a critical archaeology of modernism and its ideological remnants, mobilizing the languages ​​of art, design, and architecture to interrogate the standardized forms of Western rationality. Through an aesthetics of reconfiguration, he displaces everyday objects—which act both as supports and vectors of ideologies—into a space of artistic enunciation where the invisible structures of meaning are revealed. Since the 1990s, his works have been exhibited in numerous solo exhibitions and, since the end of this decade, in important museums around the world, such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Kunstmuseum in St. Gallen, the Villa Merkel in Esslingen, the Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard in Paris, the Daejeon Museum of Art, Bombes Gens in Valencia, and the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris, among others.

The Ambush will take place Monday through Friday, between 3:30pm and 8pm, and will culminate with a public opening on Saturday, 7 February 2026. If interested in participating, contact einaidea@eina.cat with a short note of interest until 25 January 2025. 

Header image: Le pavillon, Mathieu Mercier Prix Marcel Duchamp, Centre Pompidou, 2003, Paris. Fiberglass, pvc, plexiglas, 500 x 675 x 557 cm