Rémanence
02 – 23.09.2022

Château de la Mercerie is an immense, looming abandoned building. This anachronistic, unusual palace allows us to challenge the idea of ‘style’ in architecture. In this exhibition, Julia Dupont explores and interprets the building’s history in the form of a single copy book and a series of photographs. With our programme of events, INSTITUTO aims to encourage alternative visions of architectural practice that move beyond disciplinary autonomy and traditional design, development and construction tools. We promote interdisciplinary approaches that enter into dialogue with one another in order to enrich the relationship between the built environment, artistic creation and modern society. We seek to reflect on the role of history and the passing of time, as well as on the traces they leave on the contemporary built environment. The body of work that we have hosted to date is the product of dedicated emerging and established professionals from Portugal and beyond, who address issues that are intrinsic to architecture. These issues may be explored using tools more reminiscent of artistic practice than conventional architectural modes of representation. In Rémanence, Julia Dupont’s subtle gaze compensates for the failed construction. The book, which was originally produced in Paris, is presented here, accompanied for the first time by photographic prints displayed on the walls. This creates a new experience of the project where the sense of strangeness is heightened through the relationship with the exhibition space, itself expectant and apparently unfinished.

Support: Temporada Cruzada Portugal-França, DG Artes/Ministério da Cultura e Criatório, Ágora – Cultura e Desporto, E.M.