The Poetics of Reason revisited
For 61 days, the city's main museums hosted the five central exhibits, for the most extensive edition ever. Triennale was in the most diverse locations of the city, from West to East, in museums such as MAAT, with Economy of Means by Éric Lapierre; CCB – Garagem Sul, with Agriculture and Architecture: Taking the Country’s Side, by Sébastien Marot; in the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), Inner Space curated by the duo Mariabruna Fabrizi and Fosco Lucarelli; What is the Ornament? by Ambra Fabi and Giovanni Piovene, at Culturgest and, finally, at the Sinel de Cordes Palace, Natural Beauty by Laurent Esmilaire and Tristan Chadney. The need for densify was heightened by the choice of a multidisciplinary theme and the depth of the issues to which we set out. Agriculture and Architecture: Taking the Country's Side © Hugo David
The connection of this extensive research was the academic field, hence all the curatorial team of the exhibitions are teachers at the French school École National Supérieur d'Architecture de la ville & des territoires of Paris-Est, putting together an extensive research work, redesigning projects and creating scale models. International cooperation has also extended to other academic institutions such as the Piet Zwart Institute (Rotterdam) and the Swiss School EPFL (Lausanne).
The diversity of the programme also included ten Associated Projects, which took place at different times of the year, such as the creation of a public gymnasium that now remains in Portugal Novo neighborhood (Boxing Boxes), the installation that questioned life in a convent in Caxias (A Certain Kind of Life). Debates, exhibitions and symposiums, designed by international teams, were the projects Building 101, Fogo Island, Art on Display, Domestic Essays, Artificial Realities, Alvalade Revisited, Hidden Dimensions, and False Space.Logic Quest For Balance - Julio Gotor Valcárcel © Hugo David
In order to widen the audience, the educational service implemented an activity programme as a way to reach schools, professionals in the area or simple curiosity. In a multifaceted didactic approach, the participation of various age groups was called for. The activities were developed in partnership with the institutions where the exhibitions were held, and brought together specialists from diverse cultural backgrounds including architects selected from an international open call supported by the European Union. As a result of this selection, each emerging artist designed and implemented an activity related to one of the themes of the five core exhibitions. The choice fell on the Italian Forum for Architecture Theory (F.A.T), Klodiana Millona from Albania, the spanish Julio Gotor Valcárcel, the Belgian collective Traumnovelle and, from Italy, Lodovica Guarnieri, based in the Netherlands.
From Triennale 2016 to this one in 2019, the role of co-producers has been strengthened as international partners and funds have grown. In addition to all these initiatives, the new visual identity of this forum was one of the strong challenges of Triennale, by electing the letter T as the main protagonist to link the different materials. The use of strong colours and the way in which this language, by the designer Marco Balesteros of Letra atelier, had a positive impact on the receptivity of the public to the event.
To finish the 5th edition, the Talk, Talk, Talk brought together guests, the curators and the general public in three days of intense debate, in an original format that gave space to an active participation of the audience in the confrontation of ideas These presentations and debates, which took place at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation unfolded in four sessions intimately related to the central exhibitions, were followed by a public debate that called on those who were present to present their ideas, in direct contact with artists, activists, researchers and mediated by the exhibition curatorial team.
The Poetics of Reason proved to be a heterogeneous edition, reaching different perspectives, all relevant for a fundamental reflection on architecture and its future. We are now designing a European itinerancy of exhibitions that starts with a first presentation of Agriculture and Architecture: Taking the Country’s at the Archizoom gallery, located at the EPFL University Campus, which has carried out a programme of exhibitions and conferences around the built landscape and its relationship with culture and society. The collection of pocket books, which has been published with the Barcelona-based publisher Poligrafa, will now extend its distribution to the international circuit of specialized bookstores. We would also like to thank all the people who contributed directly and indirectly to this Triennale.
And it is in the future that we will meet again for another Triennale. See you in 2022!