Sinel de Cordes Palace hosts Future Architecture Collection

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Triennale is preparing an exhibition which starting point is the collections of different European museums for the cultural rentrée of 2020. We have travelled to Ljubljana to hear the 25 proposals of the emerging creatives from the most diverse origins to choose two commissioners: one person to be the curator and the other to develop the scenography of the exhibition, aiming to propose a reinterpretation of architectural collections. This will be the Future Architecture Collection, which opens in the autumn of 2020 at Sinel de Cordes Palace, creating a new narrative about a diversity of contents - photographs, drawings, models, interviews, researches. The goal is to create a connection between the creative teams who answered the call of Future Architecture Platform and its members. The partners of this adventure are the Royal Academy of Arts, the Ljubljana Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO), the National Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture in Rome (MAXXI), the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Architecture Museums of Estonia and Wroclaw.

The choice was made from the 25 finalist proposals called for the Creative Exchange hosted by the Museum of Architecture and Design in the Slovenian capital (Ljubljana), as a result of the Open Call for projects that the Future Architecture Platform launched in November 2019, which received 433 applications. The 26 members of this pan-European network gathered during a two-day seminar (12 and 13 February) to choose the participants for the multiple events that each one will organize.

Since its foundation, the Lisbon Architecture Triennale has been a member of this international network for debate and exchange of ideas. Of all the proposals, Sonja Lakić from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Spanish co-author of Manifesto for unexpected architectures (Diego Sologuren) were the selected who presented projects whose approach best suits the exhibition to be developed. The first, author of the proposal entitled Apartment Biographies will be responsible for its commission, while Diego Sologuren, is responsible for the exhibition design.

The choice was based on the criteria of diversity of origins and academic paths in architecture, the ability to generate narratives in architecture from a language accessible to the general public, while also valuing gender parity. The perspectives they bring to the same project aim to show that the work they develop in different regions and areas of intervention are complementary and act in a unifying way in this exhibition. Sonja is an architect and researcher, combining with photography and storytelling with her practice, in a dimension of different scales and areas. The Lausanne-based architect, who presented his work with the artist Brad Downey at the Creative Exchange, makes his practice an intervention, challenging social constructions and temporal limits. Thus, Triennale believes that this duo (Sonja & Diego) will develop an accessible content and exhibition device that reaches everyone and not only the specialized public. 

This team is now starting to work with the member institutions that joined this project, working closely with the guardians of these collections, who also assume the role of tutors in guiding the commissioner, for the development of this research and selection of content for Future Architecture Collection. As part of their regular programme at the Triennale headquarters, an 18th century palace, they will also develop a collateral programme that brings together specialists operating in the most diverse territories, between visits and debates. One of the guests for this activities is the director of the Strelka Institute, Anastassia Smirnova, responsible for the new text museum, an immersive experience of timeless reading and contemplation. Thus, personalities from different countries and institutions gather for this exhibition which opens in October 2020 in Lisbon, presenting the collections of prestigious European museums to the public in an unprecedented event.