Q-idnap : text

A group of friends living in Barcelona, Berlin and London, met in Copenhagen aiming to see the “the little mermaid”, the symbol of the city. But they didn’t. She was on her way home, after sitting in the Danish Pavillion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai, since April. They missed her for a couple of weeks. The group missed Ai Wei Wei’s replacement video installation, too, a direct transmission of the mermaid from the Danish Pavillion, dismantled a few days before the trip. To make things worse, one of the members lost his passport and another got ill. This could have become an epic failure, if the arrival night wasn’t coincidental with the launch of a Christmas beer, free in Christiania and across the city, from 20h59m.

R-location : text

Lubango is the capital of Huíla, a Southern province of Angola. In March 2010, the local government started a mega house demolition process, that has pushed over 5,000 families to non-urbanized territories outside the city, in just about 6 months.

In August 2010, a resident’s commission requested material support for house construction, but instead the authorities imposed a scheme for which each family has to pay 2.400 Kz (approximately US$25). Unhappy for not being consulted during the design process, the residents took the initiative to adapt the scheme to their basic needs.

We met under a baobab, in Tchavola, and started a participatory design workshop. On the second day, however, our activity was interrupted by the police. We were taken to the local station to explain the nature of our activity. The meeting had to be suspended.

S-port : text

Some episodes of this alphabetical series had been stimulated by external happenings –the first meeting at the Kunsthaus Bregenz, for example, was triggered by Zumthor’s exhibition.
This time, as I was collaborating with the Swissport’09, I proposed to the organizers, Camilo Rebelo and Cláudio Reis, to include Z-A-interaction in the extensive list of side-events related to the workshop, an idea they kindly accepted.
After two weeks of work in Porto and Lausanne between students from FAUP and EPFL – as well as a large number of visits, lectures, etc – the last day consisted on a study trip to the city of Basel and some of its most representative contemporary architecture.
The Swissport’09 was as successful as tiring, so we had to be careful about how to make an interesting and weighted closure without being too much pretentious and prescriptive.
In collaboration with local organizers Salome Rätz and Tobias Jäggli, it was suggested a kind of dinner-event where people could sit and talk, enjoy and relax after a long day that culminated long weeks of conviviality.
We contacted Carambolage, a small arty bar in Kleinbasel with the casual and cozy atmosphere we were looking for. We ordered dinner from two neighboring restaurants, an inconsistent menu of thai food and pizza. The Portuguese beer Super Bock was sold out.
The largest wall on the room was used for projecting videos and photos taken during the Swissport’09. With a certain dose of improvisation, the group was invited to bring their camera’s memory sticks and show what they had captured in Portugal and Switzerland: the workshop and the lectures, the buildings and the sea, the restaurants, the groups and the smiling faces, and so on.
In the S-port we experienced a new format of ‘casual meeting’ and we were happy with it. It showed that there is no ‘receipt’ for making these events interesting, a true ‘interaction’ between ‘international creative people’.
Unfortunately, as it starts to be common as well – remember the t-shirts episode in Lisbon? - something went wrong: I lost my digital camera on that night, probably in the house party we went after the Carambolage. With it, I lost all the photos and videos from the S-port. The only documentation I kept from the dinner-event was a small paper with everybody’s names (I was writing them down as people was paying for their dinner, just for keeping the situation under control :). I was surprised that no one else took photos, which tells a lot about how ‘busy’ everyone was, over the evening… this makes us happy!

Paulo Moreira

T-tempo : texto

Nas últimas semanas, o espaço do Movimento de Arte Contemporânea de Moçambique - MUVART recebeu artistas, curadores, arquitectos, professores, amigos apaixonados pela arte contemporânea, para trocar ideias, experiências e, acima de tudo, debater a arte que se faz no mundo, a partir da produção artística do MUVART e do que se faz em Moçambique.

Estes encontros são muito importantes para estimular a reflexão sobre a arte ao nível da teorização e da produção. Permitem encontrar pares, aqui e em outras geografias culturais, adquirir o hábito de olhar para nós e aprender com o outro. É um exercício contínuo que o MUVART vem realizando desde a sua criação. Desde há algum tempo resolvemos ampliar o leque de intervenientes. No início éramos só nós: artistas membros do grupo. Desta vez os intervenientes foram Paulo Moreira – arquitecto português que está a fazer o mestrado em arquitectura em Londres – e Pedro Alberto que está a fazer a licenciatura em sociologia em Maputo na Universidade Eduardo Mondlane. A conversa demorou horas.

Temos como ponto de partida para estes encontros a consciência de que existem diferentes formas de compreensão relativamente à arte africana e ao seu papel como reflexo da história dos povos colonizados e colonizadores. Da dualidade do Ocidente e da África. Da necessidade de darmos uma contribuição num mundo cada vez mais globalizado, onde se perdem os valores locais em detrimento dos valores globais.

A conversa com Paulo Moreira estava longe destes pontos de vista. Paulo Moreira, através de um projecto de pesquisa arquitectónico, faz uma ponte entre o presente e o passado. Veio a Moçambique para pesquisar sobre uma escola primária localizada na cidade de Xai-Xai na província de Gaza. Foi construída pelos seus avós nos anos 60 do século passado. Esta escola para além de ser o ponto de encontro das experiências dos seus avós em Moçambique é também um elo de ligação entre diferentes realidades geográficas. Permite obter respostas para problemas que se levantam a partir de experiências individuais e permite perceber as relações arquitectónicas de diferentes momentos e as suas possibilidades.

O trabalho do Pedro Alberto encontra-se num processo de construção. É um projecto que iniciou há três anos e que consiste na elaboração de postais feitos a partir de diversos materiais. Pedro Alberto elaborou e apresentou até ao momento mais de 300 postais. Nestas apresentações muitas interrogações ficaram sem resposta. Como apresentar o que faz? Que caminho seguir? Transformar estes postais em objectos efémeros? Torná-los documentos da sua experiência? Os postais referem-se a memórias da sua infância e a experiências da sua adolescência, trazem referências culturais, sociais e políticas; traduzem um compromisso político. Negoceiam as diferenças e cedem em momentos críticos.

Uma das qualidades do trabalho artístico é a possibilidade de ser/estar “em aberto”, poder ganhar vida própria. Isto é, permitir diferentes interpretações, ser entendido em diferentes contextos culturais, permitir desdobramentos de formas e conceitos, ser capaz de se alimentar por si e de alimentar outras formas plásticas.

As duas apresentações têm em comum o tempo e a memória. A experiência do outro e a nossa experiência. Tanto a de Paulo Moreira, que vai ao encontro do tempo e do espaço perdidos, revivendo momentos através da visita ao lugar deixado pelos seus avós, como a de Pedro Alberto, que através de colagens e assemblagem constrói universos, onde as suas referências, que vêm do contacto visual de uma sociedade pré-digital e do imaginário construído durante a sua infância e adolescência, possibilitam a construção de novos valores e a reconstituição de factos baseados em diferentes formas de construção da realidade.

Jorge Dias
Curador do Museu Nacional de Arte

U-hangover : text

This event followed the European Central Bank's Christmas Party . The party was a success but it had – as predicted – a terrible effect on everybody's 'day after'. The U-hangover took place in the charismatic Club Voltaire, self-described as a 'politik kultur kneipe' – exactly what we were looking for! After the initial 'interaction' (Z-connection), there were significantly numerous audiences listening to the presentations given by the speakers we'd invited. We were quite happy to return to the strategy of the very first event, in which everybody present was encouraged to participate – we're not interested in always following the same concept.

A small number of people showed up to literally share their 'hangover' - something not supposedly done in public.

The nature of the space – something between an high-school classroom and a small library - helped sustain a friendly atmosphere in which people discussed random themes, put to the table with the support of virtual communication devices that helped make thoughts visible. It wouldn't be an easy task to describe everybody's contribution - and isn't at all necessary, in any case. We shared information and heard points of view from architectural, political, economic perspectives. Whilst most of us were drinking tea, music was played, videos shown and we saw presentations of on-going academic and professional projects (some of them quite 'secret'). We learned about the changes that Frankfurt is going through, and tried to understand how the current economic situation is affecting everybody's lives. As someone said, the 'hangover hasn't even started yet'.

Participants were born in Germany, Portugal, Greece, Italy and France and are currently living in Frankfurt, Berlin, London and Porto. Here is the list:

Arthur Saint-Guilhem
Diogo Matos
Giuseppe Mosele
Ioli-Georgia Georgila
Katerina Dimopoulou
Lisa Romswinkel
Michele Modugno
Nina Lampe
Nuno Queirós Faria
Paulo Moreira
Pedro Borges de Araújo
Ricardo Pereira
Silvia Margiocco

Paulo Moreira, Ricardo Pereira

V-roots : texto

O “V roots” aconteceu na noite de Sábado, dia 19 de Julho de 2008, no Bacalhoeiro, em Lisboa. Como manda a tradição, o evento começou atrasado e com alguns problemas e contratempos: um jantar que o bacalhoeiro entretanto tinha combinado para a mesma hora sem nos avisar antes (acabaram por se mudar para outra sala…), os microfones que deixaram todos de funcionar no momento em que as apresentações começaram (falou tudo ao “natural”, à antiga…), os problemas com o projector de imagem e som (os vídeos tiveram que ficar para a segunda parte, já com o problema resolvido…). Mas como também manda a tradição, tudo se resolveu e acabou por correr bem.
Houve uma grande diversidade de temas abordados nas várias apresentações. A abrir este “interaction”, Paulo Moreira começou por explicar como surgiu a ideia de fazer estes encontros, mostrou algumas imagens e curiosidades dos eventos passados de Bregenz, Barcelona, Londres e Madrid. Uma agradável surpresa foram as apresentações que se concentraram em retratar questões do foro sociológico e político, demonstrando uma consciencialização de problemas actuais como: o ordenamento do território (Ateliermob); o conflito israelo-palestiniano (Nuno Coelho); os choques culturais na metrópole de Paris (Andreia Florentino e Anthony Rougier); uma reflexão sobre história, arquitectura e sociedade (Atelier Base). Através da plataforma “myspace”, Mariana Tengner Barros explorou as potencialidades do mundo virtual. O arquitecto Pedro Campos Costa mostrou parte do seu percurso paralelo como actor. Também houve apresentações de projectos/obras na área da arquitectura, nomeadamente: uma casa no Algarve (Nuno Rodrigues); a sede do parque natural da Ilha do Fogo em Cabo Verde (Oto); um centro escolar numa aldeia perto de Aveiro (Miguel Marcelino); uma pizzaria em Barcelona e lofts em Milão (Lola); um projecto de iluminação para uma galeria em Estocolmo (Mafalda Rangel).
O balanço geral do “V roots” é bastante positivo. No total estiveram cerca de 70 pessoas neste “interaction” o que lhe reforça a atmosfera informal, quase “familiar”, que tem caracterizado este tipo de encontros. Para terminar, queria agradecer a todos os oradores pelas suas apresentações que foram de uma grande diversidade e interesse, a todas as pessoas que vieram assistir e conviver nesta bela noite de Verão, ao staff do bar do Bacalhoeiro por não deixar ninguém ficar com sede e, para terminar, agradecer ao Paulo Moreira pelo esforço e dedicação com que tem organizado estes encontros. Foi um prazer co-organizar este “V roots” em Lisboa. Que venham muitos mais “interactions”!

Miguel Marcelino

W files - text

The W-files took place on Saturday 14th June 2008, the first sunny day in Madrid after a month of intense rain. The location was Studio Banana (www.studiobanana.org), a multidisciplinary creativity platform created by Key Portilla-Kawamura and Ali Ganjavian (kawamura-ganjavian), long-time friends of Paulo.
The presentations were divided into two blocks. Benedikt Partenheimer, a photographer from Berlin, showed us his series Turnaround and Falling in which he challenges the conventions of portraiture, and the series Point of View, depicting staged bizarre situations. The Colombian architects Husos (Diego Barajas and Camilo García) presented a few projects located in their country, amongst them the intriguing piece-meal construction of the Hospice-Garden for butterflies in Cali. German architect Anna Partenheimer, whose office is in Berlin, shared an array of projects under different categories like Houses (intervention in a farm house in Tuscany), Interiors (several projects in Berlin), Objects (Furniture) and Colours(photographic project in the streets of Oaxaca, Mexico). Miguel Olivares, director of the publicity agency La Despensa showed with a twist of humour several of their campaigns where politics, mass media, advertising and communication mix seamlessly (yosoydelosreyesmagos, jorgejuanalcalde).
After the pause, Tavo Ponce mesmerized the audience with his rhythmic hypnotic motion graphics for several companies (MTv, MADinSpain, SerialCut). The young collective Zoohaus, composed by architects, engineers, mathematicians and other people, explained the complex network they have created to enable long-distance internet-based project collaborations. Ciro, from mmmm... showed us several of their engaging projects which they have developed over the years (telemadre, Amazonas virus, Kiss invasion, Action in a Skip). Finally, Anne Bürger, a German film director, presented the trailer of her recent documentary Mambo and the first footage of a Europe-wide long-feature movie she is filming about the young creative breed.
After the presentations Ramiro Losada invited all participants and guests to participate in an improvised brunch at the pimped-up Moquetas23, an abandoned building that he tuned up together with the students of the Self Design master course. At 18:00 Studio Banana projected live the high-profile high-pressure football game Spain-Sweden, which Spain won thanks to a goal in the very last minute of the match.

Key Portilla-Kawamura and Ali Ganjavian

X spot - text

The X.Spot took place on Friday 2nd of May 2008 at The George Tavern in East London. The event had about 80 people attending.
Due to technical problems there was a serious delay but it was solved with the help from friends of friends of friends… It was already late when a mixture between the East London pub space, the projected images and the ideas created a unique atmosphere. The people were listening and watching, probably also smelling the old curtains, timber beams and wallpapers.
Paulo Moreira explained a bit about the notion of organizing events for creative people in different cities. Interesting drawings showed: Portuguese architect Pedro Bandeira adding that he could not really explain them but he enjoyed it. Brazilian architect Ricardo de Ostos from NaJa & de Ostos showed his work with astonishing drawings and the book he has published recently. Emanuel Sousa spoke about the meaning of X and gave a glimpse of his ample architecture projects. London based architect Adam Khan impressed with a composition of atmospheric architectural moments combined with music. After that designer Paula Amaral introduced her idea of mapping home of her new book “Private Landscape – a domestic survey” (Publicações Dulcineia #2, 2008).
After a small break the event continued with architect Nicholas Lobo Brennan who showed his film “The bird of Merit”. The mexican industrial designer Agustin Otegui who had just arrive from North Carolina explained an alternative idea of getting wind energy. The last speaker was Alex Bank, who is an architect and chef, and he made his point about food and architecture.
The diversity of the participants’ work and the openness of the public made the X.Spot in London an enjoyable and enriching event.
Thank you all!

Thomas Gantner

Y proximidad - text

Después del éxito que tuvieron las presentaciones del Z-connection en Bregenz, y de la visita a las termas de Vals con el encuentro casual con Peter Zumthor, algunos de los arquitectos que fuimos invitados a participar y presenciar la exposición acordamos realizar una en Barcelona, con la ayuda de Paulo Moreira organizador y amigo.

Estaba claro el sitio, pues desde hace algunos meses en un intento de hacer un estudio colectivo de arquitectura y diseño, arrancamos el proyecto de ‘El Local’. La idea original del sitio era reunir a personas de distintas disciplinas para trabajar y organizar un espacio multitudinario, no solo de trabajo, sino de creación y diseño en general. Un espacio abierto a la comunidad creativa, un espacio de reflexión y de movimiento fuera de lo acotado, lucrativo y burocrático que puede llegar a ser un museo o una sala de exposiciones. Desde entonces ‘El Local’ ha ido cobrando forma desarrollando en el diferentes exposiciones, proyecciones de cortometrajes, así como pequeños conciertos y lo mas importante cobrando fuerza como espacio alternativo de cultura contemporánea, además de ser nuestro espacio de trabajo.

Después de comenzar con los preparativos de la continuación del proyecto de Z-connection en Barcelona, nos pareció bien no solamente cambiar la ultima letra del alfabeto, sino incorporar un tema nuevo que tuviese que ver con el contexto o la intención de lo que se presenta. Así entonces nació la idea de llamarle Y-proximidad. Proximidad como la palabra lo indica es la cualidad de acercar o de aproximar cosas o las relaciones de cosas. Nos pareció la palabra adecuada, ya que las personas invitadas a participar venían de condiciones semejantes pero de sitios completamente distintos (algunos de ellos actualmente trabajando en Barcelona). Era entonces la oportunidad de mostrarnos desde sus ojos los proyectos, concursos, los procesos de investigación personales y la importancia y multiplicidad de los trabajos realizados en distintas latitudes.

Los participantes:
Afarin Azimian Moghaddam (arquitecta, Irán)
Ander Aginako & Amaia Celaya (arquitectos, España)
Diogo Matos & Pedro Borges de Araújo (arquitectos, Portugal)
Edouard Decam (arquitecto y fotógrafo, Francia)
Irving de la Rosa & Giovani Acevedo (arquitectos, México)
Ivan Arellano (arquitecto, México)
Leopold Banchini (arquitecto, Suiza)
Miguel Marcelino (arquitecto, Portugal)
Paulo Moreira (arquitecto, Portugal)
Sarah de Gaudemar (diseñadora, Francia)
Tomás Valle (diseñador, Portugal)

El resultado, 11 presentaciones en 2 horas aproximadamente, con una asistencia de mas de 100 personas. El evento seguió con la realización de una fiesta de clausura con la participación de los djs invitados KETEPICA y TRAQ3.
Quiero agradecer a todos los participantes, y a las personas que directa o indirectamente ayudaron a la realización de Y-proximidad.

Iván Arellano
(only spanish version available)

Z connection - text

Back in 2002/03 I attended the Atelier Zumthor at the Accademia di Architettura, in Switzerland. In 2007 the Kunsthaus Bregenz had on display the most extensive exhibition of this architect, so far. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to see those large-scale models and to feel once again the ‘atmosphere’ that Peter Zumthor was always talking about during his critics to the students. Furthermore, the building itself is definitely worth a visit! I thought this could also be a great chance to meet the people from 2002/03 Atelier Zumthor, who are now spread around in different cities… I decided to call the event the ‘Z connection’.
In order to make the meeting more interesting, I thought it could be nice to show each other’s a short presentation of what one has been doing over the last years… and for that I contacted the Kunsthaus asking whether they could lend us a room with a laptop and a beamer for a couple of hours. The answer was enthusiastic! I immediately started contacting people, and asked to spread the news to others that may have been missing in my email list. Soon I got some positive replies, while some others said they couldn’t join because they were living in Sidney or New York, or they had a deadline in London or Berlin very close to the proposed date. Meanwhile, the news started spreading to other students, assistants or former-students of the Accademia. Some people were telling me that they might bring their girlfriends or boyfriends or other friends that they hadn’t seen for a while… And so did I, asked friends I met during my other professional abroad experiences, in Basel and Barcelona. The group was growing and growing. In the end, there were people from 9 Nationalities (Argentina, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Switzerland), travelling from 13 different cities (Antwerpen, Barcelona, Basel, Braumschweig, Frankfurt, Lisboa, Mendrisio, Porto,Vienna, Winthertur, Wolfhalden, Zurich).
Those who presented their work were:
Ana Leite Fernandes (architect, Portugal),
Key Portilla-Kawamura (architect, Spain/Japan),
Nuno Travasso (architect, Portugal),
Paulo Moreira (architect, Portugal),
Rute Carvalho (designer, Portugal) and
Thomas Gantner (architect, Germany)- who unfortunately couldn’t be at the event but still emailed a ppt.
The ‘Z connection’ was a very casual and easy-going event and all participants considered it a success.
Two days later, a smaller group of friends and I met Peter Zumthor in the Therme Vals by chance. We said hello and told him about the ‘Z connection’… Zumthor’s reaction was ‘Ah, a meeting point… that’s a very good idea’. It was the beginning of the Z-A-interaction.

Paulo Moreira