Pompeii of Structures 

The exhibition architecture for Um oásis ao entardecer [An oasis at sunset], at the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (maat) in Lisbon, is set within an ambitious spatial intervention designed by Diogo Passarinho Studio, that tries to provoke and react to the existing spatial framework by creating a series of backdrops which reconfigure circulations and viewing experiences. 

Using spatial subjectivity and time as the design’s main driver, the visitors are presented with a scattered layout, allowing a fictitious sense of freedom and control – different spaces shift from more recognisable geometries to undefined or unfinished structures. 

Through surgical placements, we have recreated a new set of intimacies and spatial relationships within an already quasi-linear experience in the building. This has allowed us to formulate a sequential but abrupt series of viewing points, where all rooms have different scales and levels of intimacy and all the usual exhibition gimmicks, such as light and sounds locks have been eliminated, making the passageways between spaces and works feel like a smooth, sequential experience. 

Collaborations between artists, have been brilliantly orchestrated by Inês Grosso and Rosa Lleó (the show’s curators), and brought to this project an intense-thinking process and an emotionally-charged narrative. Bouncing from these collaborations, the design functions as a navigational framework where visitors occasionally have full spatial perception or are physically challenged to act, discover, trespass, or only peek through.  

This watchful, sensorial design allowed for the creation of specific settings for each artwork – through the viewer’s lens they can be spatially perceived in different ways or discovered in new formats. Presented in a non-chronological order, a celebration of twenty years and twenty artists can now be rediscovered through a ruin which only appears to us at sunset.

D_P_S – Diogo Passarinho Studio (2013) is an architectural practice split between Berlin and Lisbon. The studio works with a variety of clients from different fields, mainly private and institutional commissions, and maintains a strong focus on the cultural realm. Across the design spectrum, D_P_S encompasses institutional spatial consultancy, architecture, exhibition, and furniture design.

The exhibition Um oásis ao entardecer [An oasis at sunset] — a commemorative overview of the EDP Foundation awards’s last twenty years — is also a reaction to the current state of affairs. An unprecedented exhibition which brings together all the winning artists from the two awards, the New Artists Award and the Art Grand Prize, like Álvaro Lapa, Ana Jotta, André Romão, Artur Barrio, Diana Policarpo, Gabriel Abrantes, Joana Vasconcelos, João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva, Leonor Antunes, among others. Curated by Inês Grosso and Rosa Lleó, with scenography by Diogo Passarinho Studio, and graphic design by Atlas Projectos, the show is on view at maat (29/10/2020–18/02/2021).