News: British curator Beatrice Galilee has been appointed to a newly created role as curator of architecture and design at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Beatrice Galilee, who was chief curator of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale last summer, will take up one of two new positions at The Metropolitan Museum in the department of modern and contemporary art, as part of an expansion that will see the institute move into the Marcel Breuer-designed museum building on Madison Avenue currently occupied by The Whitney.
“Beatrice Galilee will join the staff of our department of modern and contemporary art as it expands to embrace a more global program and mandate,” said museum director Thomas P. Campbell. “She brings to the position her strong international experience in the presentation and study of architecture and design-related work.”
Department chairman Sheena Wagstaff added: “This is a new position at the Museum, and a timely appointment that will enhance a vital area of scholarship as we build the collection and plan our programming for the Breuer project. We are thrilled to welcome a curator with a reputation for her innovative approach as well as a comprehensive knowledge of the field.”
Starting later this spring, Galilee’s position is entitled Daniel Brodsky Associate Curator of Architecture and Design after the museum’s chairman, while a second position dedicated to Latin American Art will be named after Brodsky’s wife and art historian Estrellita B. Brodsky.
Lisbon Architecture Triennale: following budget cuts, boycotts and lukewarm reviews, Lisbon Architecture Triennale curator Beatrice Galilee defends the event that opened in the Portuguese capital last week and explains why she believes architecture exhibitions don’t always need to be about buildings (+ interview).
“Architecture exhibitions don’t deal with the real experience of architecture; they deal with the design and concept of architecture,” Galilee told Dezeen. “Exhibitions are places to be occupied, not just things to be observed. [This] was an opportunity to push the boundaries of what an architecture exhibition can be about and about how it could be presented.”
Legendary Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza was reported to have snubbed the opening festivities of the triennale, which deliberately avoids focussing on the country’s globally renowned older architects and which challenged the orthodox approach to the curation of architectural exhibitions.
“It’s an event for the next generations of architects in Portugal not for established practitioners. We didn’t really compromise on that,” Galilee said.
Working alongside curators Liam Young, Mariana Pestana and José Esparza, Galilee presented a series of exhibitions that focus on public participation, rather than on exhibiting spaces and structures. Instead of showcasing the work of Portuguese masters, she chose to focus entirely on young architects and studios, a move that has prompted a “wall of silence” from established architects such as Siza.
“I think it’s a shame for the Portuguese architects involved that they don’t have the support of their masters,” she added. “But it’s not something that particularly keeps me up at night.”
New Publics civic stage curated by José Esparza
She also explains that her concept to not involve any famous architects was one of the reasons she was chosen as curator.
“We made the discipline of architecture our focus, not Portuguese architecture,” she said. “The discipline of architecture in Portugal is really cherished around the world. We wanted to do something different that would be appropriate for this time.”
Amy Frearson: Can you tell me about the history of the triennale?
Beatrice Galilee: The first one in 2007 was founded by a group of architects who went to the Sao Paolo Biennale and realised there weren’t any biennale structures in Portugal in architecture, any independent institutions of architecture in Portugal, so they founded the triennale. The first edition was quite traditional, it was comprised of exhibitions and a massive conference. It was quite well funded and I actually attended that as a journalist. I felt like it was quite an expensive conference, it was held in the expo area of Lisbon. It was kind of a success in the fact that it happened, but it wasn’t particularly original.
The second edition had a chief curator from the art world. Again, that was quite a major production involving a number of other institutions in Lisbon and looked at art and architecture, but the overall scene was talking about houses.
The previous two editions were quite internal, involving almost everyone on the Portuguese architecture scene. So for the third edition, they decided to have an open call and not choose somebody from within the same pool of people. They just decided to make it more international.
New Publics civic stage curated by José Esparza – photograph by Delfino Legnani
Amy Frearson: What are your aims for this one?
Beatrice Galilee: I applied with a proposal to look at all the ideas around architecture. Architecture exhibitions don’t deal with the real experience of architecture; they deal with the design and concept of architecture. So I wanted to look at all the other work and disciplines that influence architecture and disciplines that architecture is influenced by. They were really happy because I didn’t have any famous architects in my proposal or my curatorial team, so that’s one of the reasons they said they chose me, as well as because I’m British, again because they wanted it to be something more international. So I applied with that team, with Liam Young, Mariana Pestana and José Esparza. They asked for three exhibitions and a public programme as part of the proposal so it was quite defined from the beginning – what I was and what I wasn’t allowed to do.
Real and Other Fictions curated by Mariana Pestana – photograph by Delfino Legnani
Amy Frearson: Can you tell me a bit more about the theme Close, Closer?
Beatrice Galilee:As a group, the idea was to explore the alternate universe of architecture, beyond the aesthetics and proportions that architects deal with; to try and be more public and open about an exhibition. So it was an opportunity to push the boundaries of what an architecture exhibition can be about and about how it could be presented.
We’re not representing architecture, we’re presenting it; exhibitions are places to be occupied, not just things to be observed. So thats the kind of big shift we’ve tried to explain to people: it’s not about demonstrating projects but about commissioning spaces and places that are used and occupied during the triennale.
Real and Other Fictions curated by Mariana Pestana
Amy Frearson: Can you give me some examples?
Beatrice Galilee: We made this huge stage in Casa de la Figera to host our public programme. Afterwards will be occupied by various different people and groups; there will be a skateboarding competition on it, a university public programme, a number of associations and institutions have asked to use the stage, even a horse riding group want to use it. It’s a public programme in that sense; the idea is that its about the city.
The same with The Real and Other Fictions exhibition [a series of installations that explore the former uses of an old palace]. It works on several different levels. It has to be occupied, it has to be used as architecture does. We wanted to explore not just what an architecture exhibition could be but how architecture is understood. Its not about showing ideas that happen elsewhere, its not really that kind of design.
The exhibition The Institute Effect is a kind of homage to the institution. Institutions play a huge role in the field of contemporary architecture, and the individuals behind the institutions become the people who make the decisions about the landscape of architecture. Instead of showing what it is that they do, we’re inviting them to come and make a public programme for Lisbon. So it’s kind of an embassy or season of institutions that keep putting on festivals and talks. The idea is that as a triennale, we’re not international curators that come in and leave again. It has an element of time to it, it sinks in and works for a city, works for people who take time to come back to it and make use of that intelligence and those ideas.
The Institute Effect co-curated by Dani Admiss – photograph by Miguel de Guzmán
The Future Perfect is a kind of experience, an opportunity to walk into someone else’s dream about the visual and aesthetic shape of the future, as well as the atmosphere around it. The programme is a combination of who else is responsible for architecture, what else architecture is. Can we present that in a new, innovative and exciting way?
Alongside that there were other programmes. Associated Projects was a call for anyone to be a part of the triennale, that was also really exciting because it made the triennale into a platform for other people’s projects. We had 100 associated projects, which ranged from architecture installations, a run, urban walks, coordinated clothes wash and research into the pedagogical systems of architecture. Not only did we commission the people we did, but we were also able to commission other people to talk about what they really wanted to.
The Institute Effect co-curated by Dani Admiss – photograph by Luke Hayes
Amy Frearson: How has the establishment reacted to the programme?
Beatrice Galilee: Because the first two triennale exhibitions had been so heavily influenced by Portuguese architecture, I think people felt that the Lisbon Architecture Triennale was an opportunity to promote Portuguese architecture to the world. I think there was an expectation that the third one would do it again. Because we made the discipline of architecture our focus, not Portuguese architecture, I think people were unsure of what their place was in this event.
Ultimately it’s an event for the next generations of architects in Portugal not for established practitioners. We didn’t really compromise on that. We thought maybe we should do an exhibition for the older generation so that they don’t get upset, but we decided that sometimes you have to take a position. We wanted to do something that would supported a different type of architecture practice, a bit more about exploration and invention than about famous names. Because I don’t think there’s really a gap in the market for exhibitions on Portuguese architects because they’re so famous and so well known. The discipline of architecture in Portugal is really cherished around the world. For example there was an exhibition of Portuguese architects in Montreal and last year at the Venice Biennale and in Milan. We wanted to do something different that would be appropriate for this time.
So in terms of animosity, its kind of more like a wall of silence from that generation rather than explicit animosity because no one has criticised me personally. That’s what I have experienced personally and I don’t know what they think.
Future Perfect curated by Liam Young – photograph by Miguel de Guzmán
Amy Frearson: It’s rumoured that Álvaro Siza deliberately left the city because he he hadn’t been involved.
Beatrice Galilee: Yeah he went to Milan for the launch of the new Domus magazine. There was a comment in one of the exhibitions saying: “Why have you gone to Milan?” It’s a bit of a shame really. I can’t imagine British architects being like that if they’ weren’t involved in London Festival of Architecture or Italian architects behaving like that if they weren’t in the Venice Biennale. Its a shame because they’re on the board of the triennale. I think it’s a shame for the Portuguese architects involved that they don’t have the support of their masters. But it’s not something that particularly keeps me up at night.
Cohen Van Balen at Future Perfect – photograph by Catarina Botelho
Amy Frearson: The biggest issue affecting Portugal today is the economic crisis. How has the triennale addressed that?
Beatrice Galilee: In some ways we adjusted by simply managing to exist. The crisis-buster grants [funding given to ten projects that benefitted local communities] were really a direct response to the crisis. It was a real pleasure to see so many of them, such as an ice cream van pulling up, and all of the projects that were made with our grants that were popping up and were really excited and were working really well. It was great. The public programme is really trying to address that.
There’s one practice campaigning for Portuguese architects to stay in Portugal. And that’s their message – don’t leave, your ideas are needed here and you’re needed here. Your thinking is needed here. You can change the city, don’t leave. And thats a really powerful message from a young Portuguese practice. They want their colleagues and their collaborators to think twice before they go to leave to get work in other countries.
So of course the programme isn’t entirely devoted to discussing the crisis, but there’s loads of really exciting things that come out of it. Some people say you’re almost glorifying the crisis but it’s not the case at all. We’re trying to be really productive and proactive. I think that’s the good thing that happens when people come together, you can get inspired and get ideas and a lot of the programme is almost trying to design those moments of conversation like what can we do together, as a group, as a generation, to stop architects leaving the country.
Marshmallow Laser Feast at Future Perfect – photo by Delifino Legnani
Amy Frearson: Was your budget cut?
Beatrice Galilee: I think we ended up with 50% of what we started with which is pretty drastic. It is not exactly what we wanted from the beginning, but I’m just really proud of the curators and participants who slogged and slaved and fought to participate in this, and driven to do it despite all the cuts. Its like a programme that exists in spite of everything. I’m amazed that we did it at all and there are no regrets in a way, we did it, its opened and it happened. Of course there are more things that if we had more money, we would have done it, but then we could also have not done anything.
Curator and writer Beatrice Galilee proposes that architecture and design exhibitions need to be about more than just “sticking furniture on plinths” in this movie we filmed at Dezeen Live during 100% Design. “It’s just not good enough anymore,” she says.
Contrasting this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale with the upcoming Lisbon Architecture Triennale she’s curating, Galilee explains why her approach avoids showcasing architectural models and products in favour of process and debate. “We’re not really interested in showcasing things that have happened, and we want to showcase things that will happen: people that will change the future of architecture, who’s going to be curating the next city and what’s that going to look like?”
This search for the next generation who will shape our world leads Galilee to work closely with critical designers who specialise in experiments and social commentary. “They don’t have an aim to be as part of a kind of manufacturing process but they would rather be involved in a discussion,” she explains.
Design with a critical agenda demands a critical response and Galilee stresses the need to uncover and nurture creative criticism. “There’s a real sense of urgency for a kind of more critical design and a kind of conversation about design,” she says.
By way of example, the talk begins with a discussion about the Hacked Lab exhibition that Galilee curated in Milan earlier this year (above), which comprised a series of events centred around new technologies and design experiments. “The idea of the week was to try and find different ways of presenting designers’ ideas and try to find things that are not just stuff on plinths,” she says. One of the activities involved designer Dominic Wilcox racing a 3D printer in a competition to build a model of the nearby Duomo cathedral.
She goes on to present a photograph taken in Africa (above), a place that she is currently researching, and explains how the narrative of African design is starting to focus on technology and particularly on science fiction. “Science fiction is quite an interesting way of designing in its own sense, city wise and landscapes and so on,” she explains.
The Black Book Interview Project, a series of events during the London Design Festival about the “urgent topic” of critical design is discussed next. “[The curators] were really trying to find out where critical design is, who’s writing it, who’s doing it, why isn’t there more of it?” says Galilee, before explaining how designers like Tuur Van Balen (above) are more interested in a “more social or anthropological or scientific kind of narrative”.
Broadening the topic to include architecture, Galilee discusses how this year’s biennale in Venice contained too many models presented as whole projects and not enough engagement with ideas. “Curators really should be sort of raising their game at this moment and be really trying to challenge audiences and to provide something interesting to say,” she adds.
Dezeen Live was a series of discussions between Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs and a number of designers and critics that took place at design exhibition 100% Design during London Design Festival this September.
Each of the four one-hour shows, recorded live in front of an audience, included three interviews plus music from Dezeen Music Project featuring a new act each day. We’ve been posting all the movies we filmed and you can watch all the movies we’ve featured so far here.
News: architects, curators and students can now apply to participate in the Lisbon Architecture Triennale, which takes place from 12 September to 15 December 2013.
Under the theme “Close, Closer”, the triennale is curated by Beatrice Galilee (above, second from left), with (from left to right) Liam Young, Mariana Pestana and José Esparza, and aims to to examine the critical themes of architectural practice.
A series of grants will be awarded to applicants who propose ”crisis-busting” and “civic-minded” projects for the city of Lisbon, plus one young architect or practice will be selected for a special recognition award.
University students are invited to compete to design an intervention at the Sinel de Cordes Palace in Campo de Santa Clara, which could be an installation, a text, a documentary or an audio broadcast.
There are also opportunities to join a programme of independently funded projects and the team invite proposals for exhibitions, talks and one-off events that directly tie in with the theme.
The deadlines for entries are listed below:
The Crisis Buster Grant Programme: 11 Feb 2013 Universities Award Competition: 18 February 2013 Associated Projects: 6 May 2013 Lisbon Architecture Triennale Début Award: 21 June 2012
Here’s an overview of the programme from the organisers:
Close, Closer, the third Lisbon Architecture Triennale, is initiating a discussion on the changing role of architects in contemporary society. We are addressing architecture in its broadest sense: as an agency for the transformation and design of space. Architecture as a living, social, cultural and artistic force that manifests itself in a plurality of outputs that go far beyond traditional construction.
From 12 September to 15 December 2013, Close, Closer will present four curatorial projects – Future Perfect, The Real and Other Fictions, New Publics and Institute Effect – which each examine distinct realms of spatial practice. A wider programme of debates, interventions, competitions, awards, performances and events will explore architecture part of a wider field of spatial practice, one that is closer to the city, its citizens and the future of the profession.
The exhibition Future Perfect, curated by Liam young, bring together an ensembles of scientists, technologists and visionaries to build tomorrow’s city. The cities we idealize for the future, onto which we project our aspirations and fears, are gradually being taken over by digital networks, emerging, nomadic, shifting and often intangible technologies. What part will architects play in designing these increasingly immaterial realities?
Held in the Carvalhos Palace, The Real and Other Fictions curated by Mariana Pestana, works as a group of fully functioning, interdisciplinary interventions on the scale of 1:1. The exhibition explores the uncanny space between reality and fiction: it is an artifice composed of real spaces and programmes. It re-enacts the different uses the building has housed throughout its history – hosting dinners, applying for visas, and sleeping over will all be possible, creating a synchronic experience from a contemporary perspective. Architecture is the stage for our interaction. To what extent is it also the script?
New Publics, curated by José Esparza, presents a 3-month-long programme of debates, interventions and performances held in a Lisbon square and open to widespread participation. The goal is to create a platform for exploring issues of civic import, a political stage to materialize arguments, controversies, proposals and strategies with a view to creating a collective social reality.
Institute Effect is an event of host and parasite. Acknowledging the influential role of magazines, galleries, libraries and museums in outlining, commissioning and articulating contemporary architectural discourse, Institute Effect invites 10 of these institutions to exhibit themselves in Lisbon through a rotating curatorship held at MUDE, Lisbon’s Museum of Fashion and Design.
In tandem with an innovative curatorial approach to exhibitions, the Triennale proposes several initiatives and pathways to participation that manifest its commitment to invest positively in the city of Lisbon. A grant programme for civic projects will be launched, together with a student competition, an award for young architects and an open call for Associated Projects.
Through Close, Closer the audience is invited to discuss and debate the role of architecture by exhibitions which revisit the future, re-imagine the past and reframe the present.
Dezeen Wire: details have been announced for the third edition of architecture festival the Lisbon Architecture Triennale, which will take place from 12 September to 15 December 2013 in the Portuguese capital under the title “Close, Closer”.
Curated by Beatrice Galilee, the triennale will present three exhibitions alongside a series of talks, conferences and events that examine the critical themes of architectural practice.
See the full press release below for more information:
CLOSE, CLOSER 12 September – 15 December 2013
Close, Closer, the third edition of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale examines the political, technological, emotional, institutional, and critical forms of global spatial practice. By questioning the terminology, inspirations, and inventions of other disciplines and their influences in an open forum, we draw the myriad authors of the contemporary city closer to new vital audiences and dialogues.
Led by chief curator Beatrice Galilee and curators José Esparza, Mariana Pestana, and Liam Young, the Triennale will provide a platform for emerging practitioners and protagonists whose work and interests are far from a traditional client-architect model. The exhibitions, conferences, talks, and fringe events organised by the curatorial team should introduce to the public, and a new generation of architects, this expansive and often unchartered field.
Close, Closer will present three exhibitions, one public programme, an e-publishing series, a student prize, and a Début Award for young architects, in addition to an established Lifetime Achievement Award. It will also introduce a number of small Crisis Buster grants that will be used to invest in longterm, civic, and entrepreneurial projects for Lisbon.
Each exhibition, event, or intervention will present a different strand of experimental spatial practice. These range from strategic political or social interventions, cutting edge digital technology to fiction, memory, performance to the role of museums, journals and theorists.
For three months from September 2013, the Lisbon Architecture Triennale will be a critical platform for the plurality of contemporary spatial practice. The events and exhibitions will introduce architecture as a discipline that is not exclusive to professionals or defined only by buildings, but rather as an expanding field with which, amongst others, sociologists, scientists, curators and artists are all dynamically and radically engaging.
Chief Curator: Beatrice Galilee Curators: José Esparza, Mariana Pestana and Liam Young Grafic Design: Zak Group
Milan 2012: this week visitors to La Rinascente department store in Milan have been trading souvenirs from the moon, making plastic from plants and learning how to download a house, courtesy of Hacked Lab curated by Beatrice Galilee.
Architects Carmody Groarke have installed metal mesh cylinders to hack the colonnaded facade of the department store facing the Duomo cathedral, while the Hacked Lab performances, installations and workshops take place in the basement inside an expandable truck-shaped stage by EXYZT.
Promising “100 hours of rebellious imagination,” the program for the next few days includes food performances by Honey & Bunny and Caroline Hobkinson, low-tech alternatives to high-tech manufacturing by Something & Son and designer Dominic Wilcox in competition with a 3D-printing machine to build a model of the Duomo.
‘Hacked’, 100 hours of rebellious creativity, will be rampaging and rollicking its way through Rinascente during Milan Design Week. Hacking – the thrill of modification and customization – will be celebrated here in bombastic style.
To celebrate the world’s original design festival, Salone del Mobile, la Rinascente’s flagship store proudly presents ‘Hacked’. Over the course of 100 hours the store will be radically altered – inside and out – as it becomes an interactive experimental lab space.
By collaborating with the most exciting young talents in design, la Rinascente invites everyone to ‘Come, explore and hack’.
Following a contemporary concept of appropriation, alteration and transformation which goes through art, design, web and technology, “Hacked” is an experimental programme curated by Beatrice Galilee which includes live activities, events, installations, performances and workshops.
Amongst the site-specific works by artists, architects and designers is a vast hack of la Rinascente’s colonnaded facade by Carmody Groarke and a flexible, expandable ‘Hacked Lab’ stage driven to Milan from Paris by EXYZT. The Hacked Lab programmeis intended to provide a platform for young designers whose work exists outside of conventional exhibition object parameters and crosses various disciplines.
The events range from scientific workshops on how to make your own Large Hadron Collider to performances, downloadable buildings and astronauts selling moon dust.
A programme of fleeting, yet arresting design events will take place at least three times a day, offering visitors interactive, visceral, playful, futuristic, scientific, choreographic, and informative, but always designed, experiences.
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