While in NYC, in transit to Salt Lake City, I was lucky to see John Baldessari's exhibition 'Paintings, 1966-68'. It comprised a series of paintings that Baldessari showed in his first solo show at Molly Barnes Gallery in 1968. I primarily went to see 'Painting for Kubler', Baldessari's homage to the simultaneously famous and arcane historian, I thought that this painting would set the beginning of the trip. In retrospect, I can see that 'Pure Beauty' was surprisingly present in many instances of the journey.
Travels in America Deserta
I am happy to announce that I was the recipient of the Fernando Távora Prize 2016/17 in the beginning of April.
The prize consists on a travel grant for research purposes. I proposed an itinerary between Salt Lake City and White Sands, which was extended to Marfa and Austin. I will be following the footsteps of Reyner Banham and George Kubler, among others.
The winner presents the results of his travel in a public lecture in October on the occasion of the World Architecture Day.
I will pe posting about the trip in this blog and on my instagram page.
The Shape of Plain: Exhibition Booklet
The exhibition booklet The Shape of Plain is sold out, so I decided to make it available online for those of you who want a copy. You may download it here.
Ad Reinhardt's Travel Slides: Robert Storr
The last event on the occasion of The Shape of Plain exhibition was a lecture by Robert Storr entitled "Compare, Contrast, Conflate and Confound the Wise. Ad Reinhardt’s Subversive Slide Talks."
Round Table: Plain Arts
The second event related to the exhibition The Shape of Plain took place on December 14, a roundtable with the participation of Joana Cunha Leal, João Vieira Caldas, Jorge Figueira e Sérgio Fazenda Rodrigues.
Architectural Ambiguities: Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen
The Shape of Plain exhibition hosted the first of its program of open lectures last week. The talk was given by Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen of Yale School of Architecture. It illuminated on the influence of George Kubler's book The Shape of Time had on American architecture in the 1960s. Most specifically on the work of Eero Saarinen. Attention was placed on ideas about hybridity and ambiguity, that are present in Robert Venturi's 1966 book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture.
Please bear in mind that the next event will take place on December 14, at Museu Gulbenkian. It will be a round table where the idea of 'Plain Arts' will be discussed by João Vieira Caldas, Joana Cunha Leal, Sérgio Fazenda Rodrigues and Jorge Figueira.
The Shape of Plain: Video
Here is a short video showing the space of The Shape of Plain exhibition. You may see it at the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon until January 9 2017.
MORE: International Conference on Architecture and Gender
Together with a wonderful group of scholars, architects and artists, I will participate at the Third International Conference on Architecture and Gender, this time aptly titled MORE: Merge, Open, Resignify. Expand.
It will take place at UniFi School of Architecture in Florence on 26-28 January 2017. I am looking forward to this conference, since I have participated in all International Conferences on Architecture and Gender, and it is wonderful to see this project unfold.
On the conference's website you can read several interviews to some of the participants, including Núria Lombardero, Joyce Hwang, Patrícia Pedrosa, Martha Thorne and myself among many others.
Dear Mayor...
This is the beginning of my letter to the mayor of Lisbon, part of the event and exhibition 'Letters to the Mayor' curated by Ivo Poças Martins and part of the Lisbon Architecture Triennial 2016. All participants in this year's Triennial were invited to write a letter to the mayor of Lisbon expressing their concerns and/or desires about the city.
'Letters to the Mayor' is an initiative of the Storefront for Art and Architecture to catalyse the dialogue between designers and political authorities. Since 2014 this event has happened in various cities, such as New York, Panama City, Mariupol, Bogotá, Taipei, Athens, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid and São Paulo.
If you wish to read my letter you may do it here. You can read all the letters at the city hall Paços do Concelho, until November 20 2016.
The Shape of Plain: Teaser
The design team of the Gulbenkian Museum made this wonderful teaser trailer for the exhibition "The Shape of Plain."
Opening: The Shape of Plain
The opening of the exhibition The Shape of Plain, will be today at 6 pm at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon.
CAA 2017: Session Listing
Together with Susanne Bauer, I'll be chairing a panel in the next CAA 2017 Annual Conference in New York City. Here is the schedule:
GLOBALIZED REGIONALISM AND MODERNIST AESTHETICS IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Time: 02/15/2017: 10:30AM—12:00PM
Location: Gramercy B/East, 2nd Floor
Chairs: Susanne Bauer, Federal University of Uberlandia; Eliana Sousa Santos, University of Coimbra
Doxiadis’ “entopia”; an Early Version of Globalized Regionalism
Costandis Kizis, Architectural Association School of Architecture
Crafting Modernities: ‘Vernacular’ Architectures in the Interwar Years
Theodossios Issaias, Yale School of Architecture
From Knowledge Transfer to Knowledge Flows: Non-Western Modernist Models
Mónica Pacheco, ISCTE-IUL
The Uses of Regionalism in (Post-)Yugoslavian Discourse on Mass Housing
Lea Horvat, University of Hamburg
RIHA Journal: Open Access
The new special issue of the RIHA Journal "Southern Modernisms" is now online.
It includes my paper "George Kubler Shifting South: Architecture History Following Geopolitics"
News and Writings
Hello,
In this blog I will keep you posted with the latest news about my work.
Eliana