City and Territory, as collective constructions, are the primary arena of conflict, understood as the action of opposing forces translated as dissension. This condition, implicit to a pluralistic democratic space, shapes architectural production.
In Conflict responds directly to the question How will we live together? – posed by Hashim Sarkis, curator of the Biennale Architettura 2020 – by learning from processes that question the issue of dwelling in its physical and social dimensions, and where conflict plays a crucial role. Public resilience and reflection transform these processes, which are still stirring, into valuable learning moments, to better understand architecture's transformative and political power.
Recalling the portrait drawn of Portugal in the film Non, ou a Vã Glória de Mandar by Manoel de Oliveira, In Conflict proposes a vision built upon a series of struggles that have yet to be overcome.
The Portuguese Pavilion challenges the public to participate through two complementary moments: exhibition and debate.
The exhibition, at Palazzo Giustinian Lolin in Venice, provides a narrative of Portuguese architecture through democracy, based on seven processes affected by material destruction, social relocation and popular participation. All of these were the subjects of broad media coverage, their struggles amplified by the press – taken here as a barometer of action and public involvement.
These processes are testimonies of a democracy that began with an impoverished Portugal, facing deep housing failures, which were aggravated by the demographic urgency of decolonisation. Today, more than four decades of democracy later, this reality remains fragile, marked by the persistence of informal neighbourhoods, by urban growth based on speculation in urban centres and by the abandonment of the interior of the country.
These cases constitute milestones along the exhibition journey. Based on each one of them, other projects with affinities to the problematic, scale or modes of action are called up for discussion. By bringing together their clashes – which remain in the Portuguese collective memory – these processes build a broad and cross-cutting portrait of the first 45 years of Portuguese democracy viewed through its reflection in Portuguese architecture.
In Conflict seeks, through an exhibition and debates, to consider the role of architecture as an artistic, public, political, and ethically-bound discipline. Faced with the impossibility of solving all contingencies, it is urgent to consider how to create places where everyone has a seat at the table, to imagine how we will all project a common future.
open call
14.05—30.08
New submission dates! Two new debates - check the new calendar!
To update the curatorial response to the postponement of the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia until 2021, the Open Call is now open to two additional debates, which will take place on-line in autumn 2020 through two open access video-conferences. The dates of the other debates have also been postponed.
Regulation and submission form download
In Conflict is the Portuguese Representation at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. The Portuguese Representation in 2021 is commissioned by the Directorate-General for the Arts and curated by depA architects, which is also responsible for the exhibition project.
With the support of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale and Mira Forum, In Conflict launches an open invitation to select five proposals for debate to be part of the official programme.
Along with the debates selected by this Open Call, a pair of guests directly selected by the curators will organise three other events, making up an international cycle of eight debates.
The cycle of debates will be held in Autumn 2020, as two on-line open access video conferences and in 2021 - between May and July - In Venice, at the Portugal Pavilion; in Lisbon, at the headquarters of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale; in Porto, at Mira Forum - with two events in each of the three cities. Thus, based on this call proposals shall be selected for the two videoconferences and for one event in each of the cities.
A second volume of the catalogue of the official Portuguese Representation will be published on these eight debates, with contributions from all the coordinators of the eight events, including those selected through this open call.
The aim is to extend the reach of In Conflict by calling for proposals for debates that promise to bring together the agents of the transformation of city planning and design – including people linked to activism, politics, journalism, research, architecture and the arts, for example – both locally and internationally, and in an open and cross-disciplinary dialogue.
The proposals sought should promote a plural discussion without false consensus about some of the challenges posed by the need to live together, contributing to the response of the Portuguese Representation to the challenge launched by the curator of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021, Hashim Sarkis.
The portuguese pavilion will once again occupy the Palazzo Giustinian Lolin, of the Ugo and Olga Levi Foundation, and will be open to the public from 22 May until 21 November.
Curators
depA architects
Carlos Azevedo / João Crisóstomo / Luís Sobral
Deputy Curator
Miguel Santos
Organisation
Ministério da Cultura de Portugal
Graça Fonseca, Ministra da Cultura
Commissioner
Direção-Geral das Artes
Américo Rodrigues, Diretor-Geral
Executive Production and Communication
Catarina Correia / Costanza Ronchetti / Sofia Isidoro
Exhibition Design
depA architects
Miguel Santos / Pedro Miranda
Collection and Selection of Content
depA architects
Miguel Santos
Participants
Alexandre Alves Costa / Alexandre Dias / Álvaro Siza / Ana Luísa Rodrigues / Artéria / Ateliermob / Barbas Lopes Arquitectos / Bruno Silvestre / Carlos Castanheira / Cerejeira Fontes architects / Charles Cossement / Colectivo Wharehouse / Eduardo Coimbra de Brito / Egas José Vieira / Fernando Seabra-Santos / Francisco da Conceição Silva / Francisco Pereira / Frederico Eça / Gil Cardoso / Habitar Porto / Inês Beleza de Azevedo / João Archer de Carvalho / João Figueira / João Pernão / João Siopa Alves / José Barra / José Gigante / José Lobo Almeida / José Miguel Rodrigues / José Neves / José Santa Bárbara / José Veloso / Laboratório de Habitação Básica (LAHB) / Luís Mendes / Luís Miguel Fareleira / Luís Spranger / Manuel Graça Dias + Egas Vieira Arquitectos / Manuel Nunes de Almeida / Manuel Teles / Margarida Carvalho / Maria Vale / merooficina / Nuno Valentim / Paulo Moreira / Pedro Bandeira / Pedro Brígida / Rita Dourado / Rogério Ramos / Sérgio Fernandez / Tiago Baptista / Vítor Figueiredo
Debate Coordinators
Ana Jara / Anna Puigjaner / António Brito Guterres / Fernanda Fragateiro / Jorge Carvalho/ Moisés Puente
Production
depA architects
Filipa Magalhães / Margarida Leitão
Production Assistants
depA architects
Ângela Meireles / Carlos Azevedo / Fernando Miranda / Francisco Pinto / João Crisóstomo / João Ferreira / Luís Sobral / Manuel Vilaça / Mariana Silva / Miguel Santos / Pedro Miranda
Local Management and Production
João Lacerda Moreira
Project Verifying Act and Feasibility Study
VERLATO+ZORDAN architetti associati
Security Plan
Sicurtecno: Fabio Rocchesso
Vídeo
Sofia Augusto
Graphic Design
Inês Nepomuceno + Mariana Marques
Translation
Catarina Chase Aleixo
Kennis Translations, S.A.
Editors
depA architects
Editorial Coordination
Magda Seifert
Pedro Baía
Publisher
Circo de Ideias
Press Office
depA architects
Filipa Magalhães
Circo de Ideias
Main Sponsors
Fundação Millennium BCP
AICEP Portugal Global
Sponsors
Panoramah!
CIN
Partners
Trienal de Arquitectura de Lisboa
MIRA FORUM
Communication Partner
Casa da Arquitectura
Support
Público / Osvaldo Matos / Amorim / Expresso / Direção-Geral do Património Cultural / Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico
Media Partner
RTP - Rádio e Televisão de Portugal
Contacts
Portugal Pavilion
Palazzo Giustinian Lolin Fondazione Ugo e Olga Levi
San Marco 2893 I-30124 Venezia VE, Italy
(Near by Accademia Bridge)
Boat / ACCADEMIA Line: 1, 2 and N
Open Call
Questions and Submissions
call@inconflict.pt
