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We started this year with a visit to the most impressive exhibition on view in Lisbon, Plug-in, a solo exhibition by Joana Vasconcelos, one of the biggest Portuguese artists and known for her impressive and colorful large-scale installations. On January 10th, we invited our 100 Collectors to a guided tour through the show that presents a total of eight artworks divided between both museum buildings, MAAT Central and MAAT Gallery.
We started this year with a visit to the most impressive exhibition on view in Lisbon, Plug-in, a solo exhibition by Joana Vasconcelos, one of the biggest Portuguese artists and known for her impressive and colorful large-scale installations. On January 10th, we invited our 100 Collectors to a guided tour through the show that presents a total of eight artworks divided between both museum buildings, MAAT Central and MAAT Gallery.
Starting with the main exhibition space, the Oval Gallery, we saw the tentacular textile sculpture Valkyrie Octopus, which was created in 2015 for the MGM Macau resort and is now presented for the first time in Europe. We talked about how Vasconcelos works with different textile techniques and invited dozens of artisans specialized in them to work together with her. In her practice, the artist very frequently sheds light on the practice of women artisans who know Portuguese manual traditions - but are often not recognized for their knowledge and work.
The following artworks we saw were two conventional vehicles transformed into works of art: the brand new Drag Race, which establishes a dialogue with War Games, the first exuberantly ornamented with gilded carvings and feathers, and the second covered with toy rifles and stuffed with stuffed toys. With a ludic and ironic approach, Vasconcelos comments on aspects of contemporary societies we often sweep under the rug.
Árvore da Vida [Tree of Life] is probably the most stunning artwork of the exhibition: an extravagant 14-metre-high tree with 140,000 hand-embroidered leaves. The work was created during the confinement of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the artist asked craftsmen who worked with her to create leaves from home. It was a site-specific creation for the Sainte-Chapelle de Vincennes in Paris, which now astonishes audiences in Lisbon. Learn more about the artwork here.
Evoking ready-made art, Vasconcelos also creates her artworks with day-to-day objects. Solitaire is a giant ring made up of 110 golden car rims creating a circumference crowned by an inverted pyramid composed of crystal whisky glasses, simulating a giant diamond. At MAAT, it is beautifully installed outside the museum, overlooking the Tejo River. Combining two of the most stereotypical symbols of luxury - cars and diamonds - she questions male and female roles in contemporary societies.
