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Serralves Pavilion

Porto, Portugal
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On the occasion of the 32nd Sao Paulo Biennial, a temporary art gallery was to be installed in a slopped garden inside the Serralves' Foundation. The brief was vague and open to speculation. A folly, as the word itself suggests, is an extravagant, frivolous or unreal building, thought more for an artistic expression than for functional reasons. The proposed pavilion was, indeed, all of that. Through a polyphonic repertoire, it aimed at being both a temple, a temporary construction and a toy, neo-classic and post-modern.

A rational structure enclosed a cubic volume. The understandable metric of the wood elements found a mismatch in the proportions of the openings and in the apparently arbitrary colours. A plinth erased the building's relationship with the sloping terrain. Two marble elements marked the entrances while a red beam crossed the inner space. Inside, five lounger chairs provided a vague sense of domesticity to the otherwise monumental construction. Priscila Fernandes' film about contemplation and leisure found a dialogue with both the park and the light-heartedness of the architecture. Perhaps, the folly was to architectural languages what Priscila's film is to leisure: a joyful and reflective pastiche...

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alicelee, February 22nd, 2020
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