pt / en







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.

Implosion of tower number 4 at Bairro do Aleixo, 2013, © Nelson d’Aires Boxes with the belongings of the families returned from Angola after the revolution, 1975 © Arquivo A Capital/IP Construction of Cinco Dedos housing complex, n.d. © PT DGPC/SIPA: VF FOTO.005917

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  

Selected Proposals


Caring Assemblies: positions on a space-to-come
Organisers: Bartlebooth - Antonio Giráldez López & Pablo Ibáñez Ferrera
- Venice

Struggle within Conflict
Organisers: Francisco Calheiros & Maria Cristina Trabulo
 - Porto
Public Housing - No Silver Bullet
Organiser: Samuel de Brito Gonçalves 
 - Lisbon
Instant City: emergency housing, refugee camps, forced mobility in a pandemic world
Organisers: Bernardo Amaral & Carlos Machado Moura
 - Online Conference
Debating Lisbon’s Future Housing
Organisers: Gennaro Giacalone, Margarida Leão & João Romão
 - Online Conference
Lines of Violence
Organiser: Patrícia Robalo
- Online Conference


Team



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
Espaço de Arquitetura


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