The cultural and artistic life of Lisbon is about to be shaken. EDP and its Foundation renovated the exhibition circuit in Central Tejo (Tejo Power Station) and prepared the building that previously held the Museum of Electricity to receive contemporary art exhibitions. The new museum is called Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) and aims to compete with other major contemporary art institutions in Europe. An ambitious project which will be slowly uncovered in the next months.
The programming of MAAT will be varied and focus in the way contemporary art reflects and provokes thought about the world we live in, and the challenges we face. According to the Director of the museum, Pedro Gadanho (coming from the curatorship in MOMA), besides the aesthetic contemplation this museum aims to instigate debate around current themes. The chosen artworks and the comissioned exhibitions will serve to feed that debate. An interdisciplinary museum, with the focus of contemporary art on the fields of urban culture, technology, architecture, science and digital cultures.
In order to encourage Portuguese artistic production, besides having guest curators, MAAT will divulge portuguese artists, young and renowned, in solo and collective exhibitions
MAAT will always have an exhibition of international appeal, with renowned foreign artists, organized in partnership with other European institutions, like the exhibition “Lightopia”, a partnership with Vitra Design Museum, in order to attract a more international audience.
The initial price of the ticket, granting acess to all exhibitions, will be 5 euros, but will certainly rise when the museum is concluded, by April of next year.
The programming is outlined until 2019 and the museum activity will be intense: aproximately 18 exhibitions each year, besides the parallel activities.
TWO POLES, ONE MUSEUM
MAAT will have two poles for its programming: the Tejo Power Station and a new building projected by Amanda Levete Architects, a London architecture firm. With a minimalist, undulating shape, this building will contrast with the 20th century Power Station. This new exhibition space will complement the Station and host 1 to 3 exhibitions. It will open partially on the 5th of October with a site-specific exhibition by Dominique Gonzalez Foerster and will be completely ready in April 2017.
Given its location near the river, this museum hopes to be a new public space of the city, calling the city inhabitants and tourists alike to the riverside. The surroundings will have a new garden, creating a new space for leisure in Lisbon.
THE HISTORY OF A POWER STATION, THE SCIENCE OF ELECTRICITY
Besides 4 new galleries for contemporary art, the Tejo Power Station will also have an exhibition pertaining to its history, that transitioned from the previous Electricity Museum and was revamped. The graphics and the design of this permanent exhibition were improved. The didactic dimension was preserved and it will still be possible to know about the power station, its workers and the history of electricity production since its beginning.
FOR THE OPENING: 4 TAKES ON CONTEMPORARY ART
MAAT will open with 4 exhibitions.
“Second Nature” (29 Jun-11 Sep) is a curatorial look by Luísa Especial and Pedro Gadanho on the EDP Foundation Collection, focused on the representation of nature in portuguese art since 1970, composed of 50 works by 26 different artists. The relation between body and nature, or personal and collective history and gardens are some of its themes. This will be the first exhibition that stems from the EDP collection, which will be a continuous presence in the museum’s programming.
Luísa Correia Pereira, “Divers chemins avec une forêt au centre”, 1970.
“Edgar Martins. Siloquies and Soliloquies on Death, Life and Other Interludes” (29 Jun-16 Out) is a new creative step for the Portuguese photographer. Marking the exploration of a new theme and a widening of artistic processes beyond photography, it stemed from the research done by Edgar Martins in the Legal Medicine Institute and was comissioned by Sérgio Mah. It is a look on that age old theme of art, present since its beginning: the visual representation of death.
Edgar Martins, “Carta de despedida, da série Silóquios e Solilóquios sobre a Morte, Vida e outros Interlúdios”, 2016 (Courtesy of the artist and Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art Gallery, Lisbon)
“Artist’s Film International” (29 Jun-16 Out) is the beginning of MAAT’s partnership with this Whitechapel Gallery Platform, that gathers 16 galleries from Europe and incites them to share the video works of artists from their countries. Then each member exhibits the chosen works as it pleases. The theme for this year was technology.
Institute For New Feeling, “This is Presence”, 2016 (video still)
In a partnership with Vitra Design Museum, MAAT brings to Portugal renowned names, in an exhibition around light and its relationship with design, art and society. “Lightopia” (29 Jun-11 Set), curated by Jolanthe Kugler, is organized in 4 sections, comprising more than 300 works, some from the Vitra Museum Collection, and including artists like Olafur Eliasson, Joseph Beuys and designers like Ingo Maurer.
Daniel Rybakken, Andreas Engesvik, “Colour Light für Ligne Roset”, 2011.
© Photo: KalleSanner und Daniel Rybakken
MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology
Av. Brasília, Central Tejo
1300-598 Lisbon
(+351) 210 028 130
