Undisciplined Siza – exhibition at Serralves Museum
Serralves Museum is among the largest institutions focused on contemporary art in Portugal. Its exhibitions were originally housed in the Art Deco villa of Count Visela from the 1930s. In 1999, a new museum was built at the rear of the expansive garden according to the design of Álvaro Siza, which celebrated its twenty-year anniversary this year. In honor of this, the curators dedicated the entire west wing to Siza and organized what is likely the largest retrospective exhibition laid out in four large halls.
Siza has many admirers in the Czech Republic who are willing to travel to Dubrovnik or Berlin for a small exhibition of the master's sketches. The opportunity to see thirty projects in spaces designed by Siza, where attention was paid to every detail, cannot be refused. A solo exhibition in a house also designed by the architect ranks among the strongest experiences. The desire to travel from the freezing central Europe to sunny Porto was further enhanced by news of a two-day conference in January attended by Siza (from his house to the office, it's just under two kilometers to the Serralves museum).
Serralves has previously organized two major exhibitions for Siza: 'On Display' (2005) and 'Raw Material' (2016). The current curators were thus faced with a challenging task. The selection of materials from hundreds of projects over the past six decades and the design of the exhibition was commissioned to a pair of curators personally familiar with Siza's rich professional career. Leading Portuguese historian Nuno Grande had already participated in Siza's exhibition 'Where Álvaro meets Aldo' for the Venice Biennale four years ago. The second curator of the exhibition is Barcelona architect Carles Muro, who briefly worked in Siza's studio in the early 1990s, is currently the chief (newly established) curator of the architectural collections of the Serralves museum, and also teaches at Harvard University.
The impetus for the exhibition title “in/discipline“ was a terse note on the cover of Siza's diary (he uses A4-sized school notebooks) from March 1995, where he noted next to his profession “as little as possible“ aside from his name. This minor note reveals Siza's “healthy dissatisfaction and rebelliousness“ towards excessive specialization and represents his “knowledge, cultural, and geographical overlaps“. The second source of inspiration was a sketch from May 1982, where a male body is arranged on a table, disassembled into individual limbs, which parallels the buildings assembled by the architect into one functional whole. Similarly, selected projects (realized, unrealized, completed half a century ago and still under construction) are analyzed on large tables in the exhibition rooms.
Few buildings would be more suitable for presenting Siza's work than the Porto museum Serralves. Even during earlier visits, the question arose of how the rooms would appear if the “tables on the ceiling“ (caring for diffused light and hiding air conditioning in the hall) were on the floor. Similar “tables“ Siza used thirty years ago at the Galician Museum in Santiago de Compostela, and now finally the opportunity arose to “bring them down“ to the floor and present the original drawings, sketches, and models on them. In white gloves, you can leaf through facsimiles of Siza's sketchbooks, the originals of which are located under a lid in front of you. The exhibits were provided by a trio of institutions: the local Serralves Foundation, the Lisbon Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and the CCA (Canadian Centre for Architecture founded by Phyllis Lambert).
In the first hall, fifteen projects from the period 1954-88 are presented, starting in Siza's native Matosinhos and the surrounding area up to the receipt of the first European Mies van der Rohe Award (where this German architect is not particularly close to Siza). The second hall contains the remaining fifteen works from 1988-2019 scattered around the world from Asia to North and South America. The most recent work from Siza's studio is an under-construction skyscraper in Manhattan, which Kenneth Frampton praises more than favorably in today's flood of anonymous glass towers for preserving the character of the place.
The following smaller rooms feature video projections “Statements“ from 26 professional colleagues of various generations and nationalities reminiscing about their encounters with Siza and his buildings. That the story of buildings does not end with their construction is evidenced by the publication section “Traces“ in a long corridor, where photographs by 23 photographers taken over the past six decades for various professional journals and monographs are displayed.
In the penultimate hall dedicated to inspirations (books, teachers, music, and travels) is a short note by Siza about drawings from journeys which bring him the greatest pleasure and lessons. Among dozens of drawings, one can also decipher a quick sketch of Prague's Hradčany from October 1996 on the walls.
The exhibition, launched on September 19, 2019, was complemented by several discussion evenings featuring numerous European architects (Anne Lacaton, Jacques Herzog,...), and runs until February 2, 2020.
The retrospective exhibition and accompanying program, however, do not mark the end of memories of the most famous Portuguese architect. Siza does not live in memories but continues to actively create. In the middle of last year, he completed 'Casa do Cinema' on the eastern side of the Serralves museum garden, dedicated to the significant Portuguese film director Manoel de Oliveira. One thus still has reasons to return to Porto.
More information >
Siza has many admirers in the Czech Republic who are willing to travel to Dubrovnik or Berlin for a small exhibition of the master's sketches. The opportunity to see thirty projects in spaces designed by Siza, where attention was paid to every detail, cannot be refused. A solo exhibition in a house also designed by the architect ranks among the strongest experiences. The desire to travel from the freezing central Europe to sunny Porto was further enhanced by news of a two-day conference in January attended by Siza (from his house to the office, it's just under two kilometers to the Serralves museum).
Serralves has previously organized two major exhibitions for Siza: 'On Display' (2005) and 'Raw Material' (2016). The current curators were thus faced with a challenging task. The selection of materials from hundreds of projects over the past six decades and the design of the exhibition was commissioned to a pair of curators personally familiar with Siza's rich professional career. Leading Portuguese historian Nuno Grande had already participated in Siza's exhibition 'Where Álvaro meets Aldo' for the Venice Biennale four years ago. The second curator of the exhibition is Barcelona architect Carles Muro, who briefly worked in Siza's studio in the early 1990s, is currently the chief (newly established) curator of the architectural collections of the Serralves museum, and also teaches at Harvard University.
The impetus for the exhibition title “in/discipline“ was a terse note on the cover of Siza's diary (he uses A4-sized school notebooks) from March 1995, where he noted next to his profession “as little as possible“ aside from his name. This minor note reveals Siza's “healthy dissatisfaction and rebelliousness“ towards excessive specialization and represents his “knowledge, cultural, and geographical overlaps“. The second source of inspiration was a sketch from May 1982, where a male body is arranged on a table, disassembled into individual limbs, which parallels the buildings assembled by the architect into one functional whole. Similarly, selected projects (realized, unrealized, completed half a century ago and still under construction) are analyzed on large tables in the exhibition rooms.
Few buildings would be more suitable for presenting Siza's work than the Porto museum Serralves. Even during earlier visits, the question arose of how the rooms would appear if the “tables on the ceiling“ (caring for diffused light and hiding air conditioning in the hall) were on the floor. Similar “tables“ Siza used thirty years ago at the Galician Museum in Santiago de Compostela, and now finally the opportunity arose to “bring them down“ to the floor and present the original drawings, sketches, and models on them. In white gloves, you can leaf through facsimiles of Siza's sketchbooks, the originals of which are located under a lid in front of you. The exhibits were provided by a trio of institutions: the local Serralves Foundation, the Lisbon Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and the CCA (Canadian Centre for Architecture founded by Phyllis Lambert).
In the first hall, fifteen projects from the period 1954-88 are presented, starting in Siza's native Matosinhos and the surrounding area up to the receipt of the first European Mies van der Rohe Award (where this German architect is not particularly close to Siza). The second hall contains the remaining fifteen works from 1988-2019 scattered around the world from Asia to North and South America. The most recent work from Siza's studio is an under-construction skyscraper in Manhattan, which Kenneth Frampton praises more than favorably in today's flood of anonymous glass towers for preserving the character of the place.
The following smaller rooms feature video projections “Statements“ from 26 professional colleagues of various generations and nationalities reminiscing about their encounters with Siza and his buildings. That the story of buildings does not end with their construction is evidenced by the publication section “Traces“ in a long corridor, where photographs by 23 photographers taken over the past six decades for various professional journals and monographs are displayed.
In the penultimate hall dedicated to inspirations (books, teachers, music, and travels) is a short note by Siza about drawings from journeys which bring him the greatest pleasure and lessons. Among dozens of drawings, one can also decipher a quick sketch of Prague's Hradčany from October 1996 on the walls.
The exhibition, launched on September 19, 2019, was complemented by several discussion evenings featuring numerous European architects (Anne Lacaton, Jacques Herzog,...), and runs until February 2, 2020.
The retrospective exhibition and accompanying program, however, do not mark the end of memories of the most famous Portuguese architect. Siza does not live in memories but continues to actively create. In the middle of last year, he completed 'Casa do Cinema' on the eastern side of the Serralves museum garden, dedicated to the significant Portuguese film director Manoel de Oliveira. One thus still has reasons to return to Porto.
More information >
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