This publication stems from the exhibition R9F6PBRANCO, a collaboration between artist Fernanda Fragateiro and architect Rui Mendes, which was on view at Pavilhão Branco between June 22 and September 1, 2013. Alongside installation views from the exhibition, this volume features a transcribed conversation between Fragateiro, Mendes and Sara Antónia Matos. Together they discuss methodologies and reflections around the works on view and the notion of whiteness.
“Sara Antónia Matos: I asked the authors to lead me among the white, giving me a guided tour through which I would gain insight into the exhibition. In it, white is established as a concept and assumes the condition of a quasi-object, appearing as an environment or a thick, almost tangible mass that we feel as we enter it. This intangible thickness is related to the nature of the intervention. (…)
[…]
Rui Mendes: We didn’t take any statement or narrative as a starting point. We were trying out a series of signs, testing a range of materials related to the idea of white. Rather than seeing it as a color, white was considered as a concept linked to the act of stripping back and the void, characteristics of both our bodies of work.
[…]
Fernanda Fragateiro: Yes, there is an abstract allusion to a color but there is also a code that refers to the initials of our name associated with the number/place that the letters occupy in the alphabet together with a P for Pavilion and ending with the word Branco. The idea for this combination came from Eileen Gray and Jean Badovici’s Villa E.1027, in which the name of the house arises from a play on their two names.”
– Sara Antónia Matos, Fernanda Fragateiro and Rui Mendes
