Cycle of talks ARCHITECTURE IN THE NUDGE in the Álvaro Siza Wing

The drawing of a nude model has been part of the curriculum of various schools of architecture, especially those whose origins were linked to the fine arts. Álvaro Siza often draws on this tradition as a moment of liberation from the pressures and enigmas of architecture, while at the same time using it as a source of inspiration, in the case of Picasso's "Femme Enceinte".

The Gallery for Two Picassos, now reinvented by Siza as the Art Pavilion in South Korea, was originally conceived for the 1992 European Capital of Culture, as part of an exhibition curated by architect Martha Thorne, former executive director of the Pritzker Prize and current consultant for the Obel Prize. Based on her experience at the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as her interest in landscape design, this talk will centre on the architecture and future content of the new Álvaro Siza Wing as a pedagogical tool - one museum, two buildings.

Also joining the debate will be architect João Luís Carrilho da Graça, winner of the 2008 Pessoa Prize, among other awards and honours. Like Fernando Pessoa's heteronyms, architecture depends on a kind of multiplication of the 'I' in order to reach the 'other'. Siza and Carrilho da Graça are no strangers to this ambivalent connection between different times, spaces that expand and contract, hovering over adjusted topographies, from Serralves to the Flor da Rosa Monastery or the archaeological museum of the São Jorge Castle.

Unlike Le Corbusier, for whom drawing naked was a regular and literal occurrence, here the architectural thought and process is undressed in a conversation moderated by architect António Choupina. The Architecture in the Nude programme will continue in the Álvaro Siza Wing throughout January 2024, until the opening of the Collection's exhibitions. - Serralves