5/15/2024 - 7/6/2024
Galeria da Garagem Avenida - Guimarães
Fernando Távora. Pensamento Livre (Free Thinking) is an exhibition
summarising architect Fernando Távora’s life and work, curated by Alexandre
Alves Costa (coordinator), Ana Alves Costa, Jorge Figueira, José António
Bandeirinha, Luís Martinho Urbano and Maria Manuel Oliveira.
The exhibition seeks to portray the character, his vast
culture, his working method, the way he used drawing and history in his design
practice, and how his classes were fundamental for successive generations of
students to understand what architecture is and how to practise it
professionally. However, it has no intention of being a retrospective
exhibition.
With the aim of
consolidating a first choice of works to be exhibited, we visited some of the
buildings designed by Fernando Távora with a more critical eye, so as to ensure
that we took into account the wide-ranging issues, from constructing from
scratch to the reuse of heritage, present in all of his work. And so we went to
see the Mercado da Feira (1953/1959), revisited the Casa de Ofir (1957/1958),
strolled around Quinta da Conceição and climbed up to the Tennis
Pavilion (1956/1960), toured the Escola do Cedro (1957/1961),
returned to the Pousada da Costa (1972/1985), passed by the
Amphitheatre of the Faculty of Law of Coimbra University (1993/2000) and,
finally, entered the Casa dos 24, the former Paços do Concelho do
Porto (1995/2003). The exhibition at the Convento São Francisco is
also complemented by the theme Travels, reflecting the cultural and
geographical scope of Fernando Távora's career.
For the title, we first
thought of Livre Pensamento. (Freethought). The movement with this name,
which emerged from the French Revolution, held the conviction that all
phenomena should be explained by science, logic and reason. However, the
modernists of the Orpheus Generation went much further, considering no limits
to their thinking, admitting all conditions without problems of coherence, even
those that depart from reason. They are not "freethinkers", they are
free-thinking citizens. It is with them that Fernando Távora identifies
himself. He collects their work attentively and passionately, as if seeking
solidarity for his heterodoxy. It is the reason for the title Fernando Távora.
Pensamento Livre.
The programme to
commemorate Fernando Távora's Centenary is a joint proposal by the Portuguese
Architects Association, the Marques da Silva Foundation and the three Schools
of Architecture where his innovative and even (re)founding vision was felt: the
Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto, the School of Architecture,
Art and Design of the University of Minho and the Department of Architecture of
Coimbra University. It also has the support of Banco BPI, la Caixa Foundation,
DST Group, Tintas Cin and Efapel.
The opening of the
exhibition will take place on 15 May,, at 6 pm, at the Garagem Avenida Gallery,
in Guimarães, where it will be on show from 15 May to 06 July.
Opening hours: Wednesday
to Saturday, from 12.30 to 18.30.
Further information at:
www.eaad.uminho.pt
www.facebook.com/eaadum
