Professor of the Faculty of Architecture of Porto University leads Portuguese Representation at the Venice Biennale 2018

"Public Without Rhetoric" is the name of the selected project to represent Portugal in the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale.

Nuno Brandão Costa, lecturer and researcher at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP), together with Sérgio Mah offer a journey through the "Public Building" of Portuguese authorship. This project comprises 12 works "created at a time when Western Europe is faced with limits and possibilities and architecture mirrors its non-conformity by enhancing its role in political and social intervention".

The Directorate-General for Arts (DGARTES) communiqué referred that "The Official Portuguese Representation is, this year, the assertion of Architecture as a form of public space celebration and spotlights the fundamental importance of the architect in building modern societies' experiences".

The Official Portuguese Representation to the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale will be based at the Palazzo Giustinian Lolin, headquarters to the Ugo and Olga Levi Foundation.

Salomé Lamas, André Cepeda, Catarina Mourão and Nuno Cera were invited to make films on the selected works.

The official opening of the Portugal pavilion takes place on 24 May, at 4 pm, at the Palazzo Giustinian Lolin.

In the context of the parallel programme of the Portuguese representation, the Books and Talks on Architecture features two sessions; the first, at 3 pm, is the launch of the book "Dueto/Duelo II - Pedro Gadanho and Paolo Rosseli - A Talk on Architecture in Photography: Photographs by Paolo Rosselli [Scopio Editions, 2018], and the second session, themed "Building Views on Portuguese Architecture", starting at 4 pm, includes the presentation of the book "Building Views [Circo de Ideias, 2017]. This latter session also features a debate on Portuguese Architecture and its international dissemination.

This event takes place at the Sala Mezà of the Palazzo Giustinian Lolin, facing the Grand Canal in Venice.

The 16th Venice Architecture Biennale, which will be open to the public from May 26 to November 25, is curated by the Irish architects Yvonne Farrel and Shelly McNamara, who have chosen the topic "Freespace.

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