Alvaro Siza architecture exhibition, Famous Portuguese architect show in Italy, Fondazione Querini Stampalia event 2012

Alvaro Siza Exhibition : Architecture

Contemporary Architecture Practice, Portugal, Europe

10 Aug 2012

Álvaro Siza. Viagem sem Programa

Collateral Event of the 13th International Architecture Exhibition

29 Aug – 11 Nov 2012

Alvaro Siza Exhibition News

Venice, August 2012 – “Álvaro Siza. Viagem sem Programa” is the title of the collateral event that Fondazione Querini Stampalia will be hosting from August 29 to November 11, 2012 (admission is free of charge). Moreover, all Biennale accredited persons are invited to attend the preview of the exhibition on August 27 and 28, 2012. The exhibition is exclusively dedicated to the most personal aspects of the Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza – one the leading players in the international design scene – who was recently awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the13th International Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia.

photo : Teresa Siza

Organized by the MedicinaMentis cultural association in cooperation with Fondazione Querini Stampalia, the exhibition is the result of the many meetings the two curators – Greta Ruffino and Raul Betti – had with Álvaro Siza in his studio in Porto. The 53 works on show were developed from travel notes and sketches and were personally selected by the artist for the event. They narrate his work in architecture as well as his concept of life.

In addition to shedding light on Siza’s extraordinary eidetic memory, the exhibition underscores the power of the drawings (chiefly portraits) created during his youth, his many trips abroad for work purposes, recent dinner parties with friends and moments “free from the burden of work” populated with memoirs, views and ironical stances accumulated with the passing of time. They all contribute to giving form to his way of living and conceiving life.

“The exhibition – explain the curators – explores the qualities of human nature and design culture alike, with a view to revealing the indissoluble link between these two factors and the Portuguese artist’s most intimate sentiments. It is thus an emotive itinerary that expresses his acute capacity for observation, which he then translates into tangible fragments of reality”.

The work (fifty-three 1/1 prints authenticated by the author that form a unique, previously unseen collection), shall be displayed in a sequential order. A succession of prospects, dreams, memories, and the faces of unknown persons and friends encountered in that extraordinary “Journey without a plan”, which is life itself.

The exhibition will also have a video projection area of the interview made in Portugal in August 2011 where Álvaro Siza talks about his personal involvement with design, his childhood, the beginning of his career, his most important encounters and closest friendships, as well as a glimpse into amazing new projects.

The catalogue of the exhibition “Álvaro Siza.Viagem sem programa” (published by Red Publishing in four languages and printed on Favini eco paper), containing the 53 drawings and full transcript of the interview, will be available for sale – as of August 27, 2012 – at the Querini Stampalia BookShop and at leading Italian and international bookstores.

www.viagemsemprograma.com

Location:Porto