For Us a Book Is a Small Building

Fernanda Fragateiro / Photo António Jorge Silva

For Us a Book Is a Small Building is the title of the exhibition that Fernanda Fragateiro presents at Galeria Baginski, rescuing a quote by the British architect Alison Smithson, who establishes an analogy between the processes of conception of a book and of a building. This idea finds a significant expression in the body of work of Fernanda Fragateiro and can be presented as a synthesis of her artistic production, where the field of architecture and space assumes the conceptual leading role, while the textual production is established as an instrument of correlation of content with formal manifestation. In Fragateiro’s work, written material is like any other material, with an expression that can be translated both in plastic and conceptual terms. If, as objects, books can be transformed into small buildings, drawings or cobble stones, as content, can represent ideas that operate in a process of construction.

Fernanda Fragateiro / Photo António Jorge Silva

In this sense, the exhibition takes as reference the writings of Alison and Peter Smithson in order to focus on the social housing complex Robin Hood Gardens, an emblematic project conceived by the British duo and of which’s recent demolition, condemned by architects, artists and critics, although having gone relatively unnoticed by the general public, represents the end of an important period of social reformation in England. Through the works present in the show, Fragateiro characterizes the building and describes in a subliminal way the principles that give structure to the architectural project and the reasons that lead to its failure. Simultaneously, it appeals to the materiality of the pieces as a way of suggesting a commentary to the premises that gave origin to Brutalism, as well as to the decline of the style that resulted from a simplification of the concepts of materiality, carefully introducing remains from “bairro 6 de Maio”, in Amadora, as a confrontation between the two demolition processes that are happening simultaneously to the period of the exhibition. Despite the symbology of the destruction of a social complex of architectural authorship, the degree of aggressiveness in the devastation of the informal architectures of “6 de Maio”, which has been subject to a similar negligence by the general public opinion, is symptomatic of a social and political indifference for the human dignity that was the main motivation underlying the Smithson project.

Fernanda Fragateiro / Photo António Jorge Silva

Fernanda Fragateiro (Montijo, 1962) lives and works in Lisbon. Of her solo shows can be highlighted A reserva das coisas no seu estado latente (“The reserve of things in their latent state”), curated by Adam Budak, Fórum Eugénio de Almeida, Évora; and Dos arquivos, à matéria, à construção (“from archives, to matter, to construction”), MAAT / Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, curated by Sara Antónia Matos.

For Us a Book Is a Small Building / Fernanda Fragateiro
May 9 – July 15, 2018 / Baginski
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