Celeste Olalquiaga

Lisa Blackmore

Hailed in the 1950s as a beacon of Latin America's modernist architecture, Venezuela's El Helicoide is a futuristic fantasy gone sour. At its conception, this drive-through shopping center embodied the narrative of progress fueled by soaring oil prices, consumerism and car culture. Yet a very different story unfolded on its spiral ramps. Caught up in the transition from military dictatorship to democratic rule, El Helicoide became a site of abandonment, encircled by slums, repurposed as an emergency shelter for flood victims, and finally taken over as the intelligence police headquarters and jail. Combining archival documents, critical analysis, literary excerpts and visual artworks, From Mall to Prison traces the turbulent history of this living ruin and shows the dystopic side of urban modernity.

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