The Real and Other Fictions

The Real and Other Fictions, edited by Mariana Pestana, was conceived as a preparation for The Real and Other Fictions exhibition at Palácio Pombal, a 17th century palace most famous as the former residence of the Marquis of Pombal in Lisbon, Portugal. This performatic exhibition brings back the past uses of the building through spatial interventions that foster encounters between the palace and the visitor. The preoccupation underlying the exhibition had to do with the ambiguity and the paradoxes beneath the practice of hospitality, with the laws and norms that define and influence the ways in which architecture is used. With its starting point in historical facts, the interventions presented construct ideological fictions materialized in real spaces and programmes to be used by the public. For the first time agglomerated in synchrony, the past uses, now re-enacted, re-imagined, are juxtaposed.

For this book, the author included a number of significant contributions, such as the british writer and art critic Maria Fusco; Inês Moreira, architecture and curator, who also plays an important role in the Portuguese cultural scene; the British architect and designer Liza Fior, and also Sam Jacob, a multi-purpose architect who also combines design and teaching with his practice.

For further information about Close, Closer and review the associated exhibition. Check here the ebooks review by the architect and critic Luís Santiago Baptista.