simples

Bienal Building (Óscar Niemeyer)

I visited the São Paulo Architecture Biennale on the 12th and 13th of November, while spending a week there to attend  TEDx São Paulo and interview people for my MFA thesis, Alvorada.

Before leaving New York, I pitched a review of the Bienal to Kieran Long, then editor-in-chief of Architecture Review. He commissioned me a 750-word piece, which I duly delivered. The following month Long told me he had left the magazine, but that the article would be published in the January 2010 issue of AR. It was indeed, but instead of around 750, it had been cut down (and very well, I may add) to just over 300 words.

For the sake of my own archive, I chose to have the whole, submitted piece here and show what bits were edited out.

Vista da exposição, © Susana Pomba

A minha recensão da exposição É Proibido Proibir do MUDE está desde hoje online no site Artecapital.

Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret) (1887-1965) Still-Life of the Pavillon de L’Esprit Nouveau, 1924

This morning I visited the Art Deco, 1925 exhibition at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon. This world-class, exquisite show would surely please Calouste Gulbenkian, the Armenian-born billionaire to which Portuguese science and culture (and myself, as a FCG/FLAD grant holder) owe so much. His famous motto, “only the best”, made the museum and foundation that bear his name two of the world’s most respected and sophisticated institutions.

Curated by Chantal Bizot and Dany Sautot and masterfully designed by Mariano Piçarra and Ricardo Viegas (graphics), the exhibition is a true arts décoratifs treasure trove. From carpets to glass, jewellery to books, it presents a wide range of (mostly applied) artworks that mirrored the prevailing message of 1925′s International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts: the triumph of the ensemble as an expression of industrial and artistic progress.

(more…)

I first wrote a 600-word review of Speed Limits for icon magazine in late May of 2009. It ended up being edited down to just over 450 words, losing in my view some of the details that I liked best. In late June I sent my original piece (with a few changes) to the frieze Writer’s Prize, a yearly award for art criticism. I had previously asked the editors of frieze (who don’t usually accept design exhibition reviews) if Speed Limits would be eligible, as it had as starting point Marinetti’s manifesto. They agreed, and I sent it. In late August I got news from Jennifer Higgie, who said I had been selected, among over 300 entries, as one of the jury’ 8 commended writers.

Both texts are now available here, the first under icon, the second under unpublished.

My favourite part of the Delta Airlines flying experience is seeing its inflight security video. Seriously. Inflight security videos (if you ever cared to watch) are the usually ignored safety demonstrations that were once played out by flight attendants. These instructions are now featured in rather forgettable segments with poor amateur acting (such as TAP Portugal) or 3D animations.
Delta’s video is the farthest it gets from that. It’s well shot, well acted (and cast), concise, even… funny. The first time I saw I couldn’t stop watching, and after having flown on Delta four times this year, I still find it seriously entertaining. But the reason I really like this video is not that it’s funny or entertaining, but that it made me care – and in the process told me where the emergency exits are, and about all the safety procedures we all should care about.