European tour

During 2018, we presented the Triennale 2019 in two cities: Lisbon and Venice. In 2019, the programme continued the tour around Europe, invited by plural cultural institutions with whom we have been collaborating, for presentations that anticipate the intense opening: 3 to 5 October 2019.

Barcelona

With a strong connection to the Basque city, through the works of Mies and Gaudí, which are intimately related to themes of Triennale 2019, Barcelona has welcomed the final event of the tour through Europe. The debate based on the rationality of architecture and ornament was moderated by César Reyes (co-founder of the publisher DPR Barcelona) with the participation of Anna Ramos (director of Fundació Mies van der Rohe), Éric Lapierre (chief Curator of the Triennale 2019) and José Mateus (chairman of Lisbon Triennale). Architects Anna & Eugeni Bach established a connection with the fifth edition, through their intervention at the Mies van der Rohe Foundation, mentioned “as an act of magic, a single gesture that changes everything”. According to Éric Lapierre, The Poetics of Reason brings the certainty of unleashing relevant meanings in any of its contemporary forms of practice.

Paris

As an invitation from the French Delegation of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Éric Lapierre participated in the debate “Preserving, Promoting and Exhibiting Architecture”, on 21 May. The chief curator of the Triennale 2019 joined Marta Aguiar, architect from Porto and Nuno Sampaio, executive director of Casa da Arquitectura, based in Matosinhos. This was the 3rd edition of “Voix aux Images”, dedicated to the Portuguese cultural universe, as part of the programme to commemorate the 90th anniversary of Camões – Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua, with a cultural centre in Paris. The initiative, focusing on urbanism and architecture, was attended by a group of specialists ranging from practice, to research and criticism, such as Ana Tostões, André Cepeda, Didier Fiuza Faustino, Manuel Aires Mateus, Nuno Grande and Pedro Levi Bismarck, among others.

Cork

On 6 April, Manuel Henriques visited Cork, in Ireland, for the Fórum “Curating Architecture”, organized by the Irish Architecture Foundation. The conference gathered international architects and curators to discuss, explore and imagine the potential of staging architecture in an exhibition context. Along with Manuel Henriques, executive deputy director of Lisbon Architecture Triennale, confirmed speakers included Pedro Gadanho, director of MAAT museum; Catherine Ince, senior curator of Victoria & Albert Museum; Kieran Long, journalist, curator and specialist in architecture and design; Léa-Catherine Szacka, architecture professor at Manchester and the architect Veronica Valk.

Helsinki

On 1 April, “The Poetics of Reason” lands in Helsinki, Finland, for “Life as a Party”, a symposium on curatorship and exhibition in architecture. The public conversation, moderated by the designer Tuomas Toinoven of New Academy, brought together Manuel Henriques, executive deputy director of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale, to talk about this fifth edition; Giovanni Piovene, co-curator of the exhibition “What is Ornament?” for a conversation about “Not everyone can design life as a party”; Markus Lähteenmäki, historian and curator of “Planetarium”, brought to the roundtable this homonymous project; Hanna Harris, director of Archinfo and curator of the Finnish Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale, with a talk on “National Projects”; and Mika Savela, architect, co-founder of Selim Projects and publisher of Finnish Architectural Review presented “Curatorial, Editorial”.

2018–Lisbon & Venice

Recalling last presentations, for the first public presentation with José Mateus and Éric Lápierre, we occupied an office tower in construction in the main street of Lisbon, at Fontes Pereira de Melo Avenue with the project FPM41 by Barbas Lopes Arquitectos, on 24 April. In Venice, the day before the opening week of the Architecture Biennale, entitled Freespace and curated by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, we made a very special event that united the 2019 Triennale programme with a unique performance by Thurston Moore at the terrace of an empty house with an astonishing view over the Punta della Dogana and Laguna di Venezia.