October 2016
In October 2016, the EDP Foundation will open MAAT, the new Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, in one of Lisbon’s most popular cultural areas, the historic district of Belém.
Set within a ground-breaking kunsthalle designed by London-based Amanda Levete Architects, and an early 20th century power station, MAAT will offer an innovative programme focusing on contemporary culture through a combination of visual arts, new media, architecture, technology and science.
With its unique heritage, an expanding Portuguese art collection, and an innovative exhibition program, the EDP Foundation’s new museum will be a place of discovery, critical thinking, and international dialogue.
Pre-opening international events
Last February, on the occasion of ARCO Madrid, the director of the new museum, the Portuguese architect, writer and curator Pedro Gadanho, announced the opening dates and programme, during a lunch organised in collaboration with the Portuguese Embassy in Madrid and ARCO/IFEMA.
MAAT will again meet the international art community on the occasion of the upcoming Gallery Weekend Berlin. MAAT will host a garden party on Saturday, April 30, and will present an exhibition by the Portuguese artist André Romão. Opening on April 29 at 6pm, Romão’s exhibition 1977/1981 will kick off a yearly collaboration with the Portuguese Embassy in Berlin, held at its new gallery space, the Kunstraum Botschaft.
Leading up to MAAT’s grand opening in October, there will also be events and programmes organised on the occasion of Art Basel in June 2016, and during the upcoming Bienal de São Paulo in September 2016.
Programme of exhibitions starts in June
Before MAAT’s new kunsthalle building opens in October, the museum will start its inaugural programme within four refurbished exhibition spaces located in the existing Central Tejo power station.
As of June 28, the new Central 1 gallery will welcome the Lightopia exhibition, held in collaboration with the Vitra Design Museum. At the adjacent Central 2 gallery, Second Nature will be the first of a series of curated surveys of EDP Foundation’s contemporary art collection.
A new project by London-based artist and photographer Edgar Martins, Siloquies and Soliloquies on Death, Life and Other Interludes will appear in the expanded Ashtray 8 project space.
Finally, the first appearance of Artists’ Film International in Portugal will take place in the monumental Boiler Hall, following on a newly established partnership with Whitechapel Gallery, Istanbul Modern, Para Site and other art institutions.
As a unique example of fully equipped industrial heritage, the power station’s permanent collection and remaining machinery will also be presented under a new light with the redesign of the Central Tejo Technology Circuit becoming an integral part of the new museum’s offerings to the public.
Grand opening: October 5, 2016
The new MAAT building designed by Amanda Levete Architects will be opened to the public on October 5, 2016, with a twelve-hour programme that will include exhibition openings, educational events, performances, and music happenings across the extended riverside campus kept by the EDP Foundation.
The first commission for MAAT’s new Oval gallery will be the centrepiece of the new museum’s inaugural celebration. Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. Pynchon Park will be the first iteration of the multi-part Utopia/Dystopia exhibition. Following from TH.2058 at Tate Modern (London, 2008), and Ballard Garden at De Singel (Antwerp, 2014), Pynchon Park will be the third large-scale environment created by the acclaimed French artist in which media, literature and dystopia come together. It will present a kind of 21st century fairy tale, in which a species from outer space has taken over and designed the park as a place to observe human behaviour under the best possible conditions.
Along with shows already on view at MAAT Central galleries, other exhibitions opening in October will include The World of Charles and Ray Eames, a partnership with Barbican Centre, London, and The Form of Form, one of the main exhibitions included in the 4th Lisbon Architecture Triennale.
