The 30th anniversary of the Arpad Szenes – Vieira da Silva Foundation in Lisbon will be celebrated with the exhibition project 331 Amoreiras em Metamorfose (331 Mulberry Trees in Metamorphosis), conceived by Nuno Faria, the institution’s new Director.

331 Amoreiras em Metamorfose, which will run from 20 November 2024 to 31 December 2025, is a project in constant transformation, with a set of 5 partial exhibitions, the first of which is entitled The Fabric of the World (20 November to 9 February 2025). The exhibition is conceived as a broad constellation of 83 Portuguese and foreign artists, contemporaries or not of Vieira da Silva and Arpad Szenes, whose works will dialogue with each other in a common space.  Under the sign of metamorphosis, the programme draws inspiration from or reflects what we might call textile thinking, so fundamentally characteristic of Maria Helena Vieira da Silva’s work over the decades of her long artistic production.

It was after the disastrous Lisbon earthquake of 1755 that the Marquis de Pombal, a figure of Portuguese Enlightenment, decided to rebuild the city by renewing its urban plan, marking a historic milestone for the city in a context of particularly difficult economic and temporal constraints.
Between 1760 and 1770, 331 mulberry trees were planted to stimulate the Portuguese silk industry, which was developing in the silk factories and in particular at the Silk Factory, located in the Jardim das Amoreiras (Mulberry Garden), where Vieira da Silva decided to establish the Arpad Szenes – Vieira da Silva Foundation in the early 90s.
Inspired by the origin of the Silk Mill building and its specific function in the creation of the economy (the mill was the place where silk spinning was taught), the annual program will focus on the process of interdependence between the plant (the tree), the animal (the silkworm and its chrysalis) and the human (the weaver).

[ I ]  November 20, 2024 to February 9, 2025

O TECIDO DO MUNDO

LE TISSU DU MONDE

THE FABRIC OF THE WORLD

with works by VIEIRA DA SILVA / ARPAD SZENES / ÁLVARO LAPA / ANA HATHERLY / ANA JOTTA / ANGELO DE SOUSA / BELÉN URIEL / BRUNO PACHECO / DOMINGUEZ ALVAREZ / ELISA STRINNA / FERNANDA FRAGATEIRO / FERNANDO MARQUES PENTEADO / FRIDA BARANEK / GAETAN / HANS HARTUNG / HEIN SEMKE / HELENA VALSECHI / ILDA DAVID’ / JORGE FEIJÃO / JOSÉ ESCADA / JOSEPH ALBERS / LOURDES CASTRO / MARIA CAPELO / MÁRIO CESARINY / MUMTAZZ / PEDRO AH PAIXÃO / ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG / RUI MOREIRA / SOL LEWITT / SONIA DELAUNAY / TOMBA