Skin of the City

Skin of the City is the most recent iteration of the ongoing project, Erratic Drift: an evolving body of work about humans’ interrelations with the urban lithic; about stone and cities and all their materialities.

Skin of the City, Glasgow / Madrid-based artists Minty Donald and Nick Millar, with Madrid-based landscape architect and ecological thinker, Malú Cayetano, turn their attention to the hard, stony surfaces of urban environments: strata of concrete, asphalt, granite, sandstone, brick marking out a city’s boundaries, forming membranes between street and earth, between the within and outwith.

Together, they are interested in the continual processes of change, the movement and decay this seemingly durable lithic skin undergoes. In how, just as our human skin dies, dries, and flakes, the skin of a city too sheds and crumbles to dust.
Together, they are interested in the journeys of stony materials. Silt and pebbles carried by the flow of a river, rocks transported and transformed by glacial and volcanic forces, and the global movements of lithic material through extraction, construction, and demolition.

Together, they are interested in the consequences of spreading a lithic layer over the earth: the impact of creating largely impermeable membranes that exacerbate the effects of flooding and heat retention, and limit biodiversity in cities.

In this reiteration, New Future Construction School expand on the materiality of fragments found in local sites, and their connection to both the past and future of our built environment.

Skin of the City will be accompanied by a series of talks and events, alongside a screening programme. This exhibition is one of three events for Architecture Fringe 2025 hosted by New Future.

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Skin of the City / Piel de la Ciudad, was first developed, performed and exhibited in Madrid, with the support of four arts organisations: Paisanaje, Hablarenarte, Espacio de Todxs, and Instituto de Estudios Postnaturales. [2024]

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Minty Donald and Nick Millar are Glasgow and Madrid-based artists who are interested in interrogating and dissolving divisions between the human and the nonhuman. The current focus of their collaborative practice is on humans’ interrelations with the lithic, specifically in urban environments. Previous work explored humans’ interactions with rivers and other waterways. Repeated actions or ‘micro-performances’ are pivotal to their process, which also includes sculptural practice, writing, and video. Recent projects include Erratic Drift, 2021 -ongoing; Skin of the City/Piel de la Ciudad, 2023 – ongoing; and With These Hands, 2021. Minty is Professor of Contemporary Performance Practice at the University of Glasgow.

Malú Cayetano holds a degree in landscape architecture from Wageningen University (Netherlands) and a degree in forestry engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid. She has developed national and international projects in the fields of engineering, ecological restoration, landscaping and urban planning, and artistic and cultural production. Collaborating with various groups and initiatives related to the social transformation of habitats, urban regeneration, and urban ecology. She is an expert in participatory methodologies, interested in unlocking and making visible natural processes in urban contexts, the role of art as a mediator between citizens, ecology, and territory, and in culture as a facilitator in the transition toward ecological awareness. Currently, she is the Coordinator of the Study Group on Ecologies of the Art System, New Landscapes, and Territory in Contemporary Culture at Matadero, Madrid.

New Future is a Glasgow-based accelerator for cultivating sustainable construction and retrofit skills in the built environment. Founded as a Community Benefit Society, NFCS equips construction sector participants with the skills required to preserve our existing, and decarbonise our future, built environment. By delivering low-impact retrofit, heritage and new-build skills training NFCS enables new and existing construction workers to become versatile and multi-skilled experts in the practical application of sustainable, low-carbon, bio-based and circular materials. The novel model of retrofit and heritage training will be delivered through live construction projects, rehabilitating disused and at-risk buildings for community benefit. NFCS views access to specialist climate literacy education and sustainable construction skills as essential to addressing some of the most significant social, environmental and economic challenges of our time, aiming to empower construction professionals and urban communities with the agency to accelerate environmental and economic transformation.