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maat Lisbon's new exhibitions explore a sense of 'being with' as they address relevant social, geopolitical, and environmental issues

2021-04-08T15:43:00-04:00

The Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology (maat) launched in October 2016 as an international design institution championing discourse and creative practice to "inspire new understandings of the historical present and an empowering engagement with the common future." The riverfront museum, designed by AL_A (Amanda Levete Architects), has focused its efforts towards "fostering critical discourse and creative practice that inspire new understandings of the historical present and an empowering engagement with the common future."

In addition to its exciting 2021 Spring line-up, maat also focuses on climate action topics. With plans for investing in exhibitions and public programming that emphasize this initiative, the museum has developed the Climate Collective, a year-long project chaired and curated by T.J. Demos.

Image still taken from maat April 2021 exhibition video. Video © maat

In preparation for 2021, new Covid-19 health and safety protocols are allowing museums to welcom...

Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology in Portugal reopens with new SO-IL-designed architectural intervention and exhibition

2020-06-15T11:30:00-04:00

After a delayed opening originally scheduled for March 27th, the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (maat) has begun its new chapter with a museum-wide architectural intervention designed by New York-based studio SO - IL.

Titled Beeline, the project is an ephemeral work that transforms the Amanda Levete-designed building into a series of spatial encounters that take guests through elevated pathways, stage areas, and workshop zones. "This not only transforms the way visitors enter and experience maat, but also challenges the implied hierarchies of spaces in a traditional museum and provide flexibility for an ever-evolving organization," said SO - IL co-founder Florian Idenburg in a statement.

The design studio also designed an exhibition for the museum called Currents - Temporary Architectures, in which the practice displays 12 projects it has created over the past decade, exploring both temporary and built works. The exhibit includes 1:1 mock-ups, ephemera, models, and books...

AL_A-designed Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) opens in Lisbon

2016-10-04T19:49:00-04:00

Lisbon's new Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology officially opens October 5, spread across two structures: the renovated interior of a former power station, and a new kunsthalle designed by AL_A.

The MAAT was founded by the EDP Foundation, a private Portuguese organization primarily focused on energy and environmental concerns, and their extension into society and culture. MATT's construction extends EDP's preexisting art campus on the banks of Lisbon's Tagus River, and is part of an ongoing urban revitalization project along the historic waterfront, which includes Vittorio Gregotti’s Cultural Centre of Belém and Paolo Mendez de Rocha’s Coach Museum. Materially, the building is also meant to directly reference its site's craft tradition, made of 15,000 three-dimensional ceramic tiles.

AL_A's design for the MAAT includes a massive, low-slung roof that extends into the public space—allowing visitors to walk over and under it—intending to bridge the waterfront and the city. The m...

Pedro Gadanho leaves MoMA to become first artistic director of Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology in Lisbon

2015-07-06T19:08:00-04:00

The new Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) in Lisbon recently selected architect and writer Pedro Gadanho as its first Artistic Director. Gadanho is leaving his post as a curator in MoMA's Department of Architecture and Design, which he's held since 2012 – a relatively quick departure for such a high-status role. He will start at MAAT in October of this year, working to define the museum's cultural program, which aims to be "an exciting contemporary programme at the intersection of art, architecture and technology."

At MoMA, Gadanho worked alongside Senior Curators Martino Stierli (current) and Barry Bergdoll (former) as MoMA put out exhibitions like Tactical Urbanisms. He is already a respected entity in Portugal, having curated the Portugal Pavilion for the 2004 Venice Biennale, as well as numerous other local exhibitions. He holds an architecture degree and a PhD in Architecture and Mass Media from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP), as we...