Portuguese Pavilion, 57th Venice Biennale

About

The Official Portuguese Representation at the 57th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, will open to the public on 13th of May with Medida Incerta [Uncertain Measure] by José Pedro Croft, curated by João Pinharanda.

Six sculptures will be installed in the gardens and an exhibition will be presented inside the Villa Hériot to make up a project that inscribes monumental pieces on the landscape, reframing interpretations, opening unexpected perspectives and awakening the senses of the spectator. The steel structures will support monumental, transparent, translucent glass and mirrored window panes, which will both frame reality, and reflect and transform it.

Medida Incerta [Uncertain Measure] is a proposal for the deconstruction of the plane and orthogonality, a game between the objectivity of space and its illusion, challenging stability and balance. With each frame measuring approximately eight meters in height by three metres in width, each plane will present unique dimensions, angles and frames.

In José Pedro Croft’s work, sculptures and their context are inseparable elements. Croft’s interventions stem from an ongoing working dialogue between contemporary art and our built and natural heritage.

Villa Hériot is an architectural complex dating from 1929, situated on the island of Giudecca, consisting of two main houses surrounded by gardens facing the lagoon. This framework stimulates a multiplication of the real, capturing fragments both distant and close to architecture and organic, atmospheric and aquatic landscapes.

The island of Giudecca, traditionally industrial and set apart from the privileged centres of Venice, is once again the place chosen for the Official Portuguese Representation, following Álvaro Siza’s representation of Portugal at Biennale Architettura 2016 with NEIGHBOURHOOD: Where Alvaro meets Aldo. The project was an intervention during which the political, artistic and social impacts spurred the resumption of unfinished works in the Campo di Marte social housing complex, located in the vicinity where José Pedro Croft presents his Medida Incerta
in 2017.

As a way to mark this rare meeting of both international exhibitions and to honour the social
housing complex on Giudecca, José Pedro Croft accepted an invitation from the architect himself to provide a permanent work for the urban environment design. The entire production
process of this project took over a year and was documented for the exhibition presented inside one of the houses on Villa Hériot.

The 57th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia will run from 13 May to 26 November 2017 under the title VIVA ARTE VIVA, chosen by curator Christine Macel as a challenge to the projects taking part in the exhibition period of this international event.

Portuguese Pavilion at the 57th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia
A project supported by the Ministry of Culture
Organisation and Commissioning | General Directorate for the Arts
Curator | João Pinharanda
Artist | José Pedro Croft
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