Over 100 International Contemporary Artists to exhibit Public Art Works throughout Lisbon, Grandola, Portimão, and Vila Real de Santo Antonio

Portugal Arte 10
July 16 – August 15, 2010

The First Edition of the
International Survey Of
Contemporary Art
Portugal
www.portugalarte.org

Portugal Arte 10: First Edition


Over 100 International Contemporary Artists to exhibit Public Art Works throughout Lisbon, Grandola, Portimão, and Vila Real de Santo Antonio

International Team of Curators to Present Additional Thematic Exhibitions in Institutions and Historic Buildings of Portugal

VIP Opening weekend July 16-18, 2010

Portugal Arte 10, a new month-long biannual art exhibition, announces its inaugural edition to debut July 16, 2010 in Lisbon and the surrounding region. Conceived by Artistic Director Stefan Simchowitz and President Miguel Carvalho, Portugal Arte 10 distinguishes itself from other international art events by creating a sense of public engagement with the greater art-world. Portugal Arte 10 will feature a large and ambitious program of specially commissioned public sculpture projects and site-specific installations, alongside 8 curated group exhibitions, each addressing themes relevant to contemporary life. It will be spread across Lisbon and its surrounding regions, including city squares, walkways, beach territories, and historic interior spaces.

Artists were selected through an open, international, and decentralized curatorial model engaging multiple curators, writers, artists, designers and architects, including Stefan Simchowitz, Fred Hoffmann, Paul Young, Lauri Firstenberg, Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee, Johannes Van Der Beek, Dan Nadel, Cesar Garcia, Juan Delgado Calzadilla, Elvia Rosa Castro, Nelson Herrera Ysla and Garth Weiser.

The exhibition reflects this new curatorial model, as works will be presented in a manner that evokes discourse and the participation of a community. The art will engage or confront its immediate urban context by using ideas of subject, form, scale, monumentality, or experiential space. It will bring about new social and geographical understandings of the urban environment that challenge its conventions and familiarity.


PUBLIC ART PROJECTS

The cornerstone of Portugal Arte 10 is a series of public art projects that will be installed throughout downtown Lisbon. Three distinct areas, Chiado, Baixa, and Avenida Liberdade, will host these works. Each area is unique in its layout, geography, and topography. Los Angeles-based architects Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee of JohnstonMarkLee architectural firm were instrumental in examining these areas defining characteristics and placing the works of art in ways which either reinforce the urban condition, or challenges it by creating a new way of experiencing a neighborhood. Chris Burden, Faile, Yoan Capote, Sterling Ruby, Robert Melee, Ivan Capote, Ben Jones, Mustafa Hulusi, Joe Grillo, Duvier Del Dago Fernandez, Miguel Palma, Nathan Mabry, Justin Lieberman, Olaf Breuning, Marnie Weber, Jim Drain and are among the more than one hundred artists presenting work at PortugalArte. (The full list of artist can be found: www.portugalarte.or g).


ADDITIONAL EXHIBITION VENUES

Portugal Pavilion

The Portugal Pavilion is a striking building designed by Portugal's Pritzker Award-winning architect Alvaro Siza Vieira. Its remarkable sagging concrete roof weighing 1,400 tons and measuring 167 by 223 ft is an instant attention-grabber, undulating like the sail of a ship, keeping the maritime theme of most of the district's architecture. The pavilion consists of two exhibition areas, one housing main exhibitions, the second providing a large outdoor space for national displays. The most iconic feature of the pavilion however, is a thin, curved concrete sail that creates a canopy over the ceremonial plaza. As Lisbon is an area of high sismic activity, the canopy and the building are completely separate, each with its own structural support system. At the time of construction, the National Pavilion was Lisbon's largest urban regeneration project since rebuilding the city in the aftermath of an earthquake and tidal wave of 1775.

LX Factory

An urban relic virtually deserted for years, has been renovated and repurposed within the city as a new venue called LX Factory. A creative collective occupied by corporations and professionals, LX Factory has hosted a diverse set of happenings related to fashion, fine arts, architecture, and music, attracting numerous visitors to rediscover Alcântara through an engaged program of events. LX Factory was originally built in 1846 as a fabric warehouse for "Companhia de Fiação e Tecidos Lisbonense", one of the most important manufacturing factories in Lisbon's history.

CURATED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

In addition to contributing to the selection of artists to present work in the public component of Portugal Arte 10, the curatorial committee will be presenting a series of group exhibitions throughout Lisbon and the surrounding areas.

Personal Freedom
curated by Johannes Van Der Beek

Serendipity co-curated by Juan Delgado Calzadilla,
Elvia Rosa Castro, and Nelson Herrera Ysla

Faile: Temple

Billboard Project
curated by Lauri Firstenberg and Cesar Garcia, LA><ART

Insider/Outsider
curated by Dan Nadel

California Dreaming
co-curated by Fred Hoffmann and Paul Young

Gradation,
curated by Garth Weiser

General Information and Travel Information

For more details on exhibitions concept, artistic director, curators, venues, calendar, exhibitions, artists, and updates, please visit us at www.portugalarte.org; Members of the public looking to travel to Portugal for Portugal Arte 10 should contact official travel agency Oasis Travel, at www.oasistravel.net or by emailing Susana Lourenço at Susana.Lourenco@oasistravel.net

Note to Editors
The EDP Foundation is a private, non-profit-making institution and was set up by EDP - Energias de Portugal, S.A. in December 2004.

The EDP Foundation has reinforced the EDP Group's commitment to solidarity that it has followed since it was set up and reflects a concern for asserting its modernity and supporting important causes in Portugal.

The EDP Foundation is particularly devoted to studying and disseminating issues related to energy and the environment, though it also sponsors and promotes cultural, educational and social initiatives.

The foundation aims to convert the campus at the Tejo Power Station into a scientific and cultural unit, placing a well-located area in Lisbon at the disposal of the artistic, scientific, cultural and education communities and of the general public as well.