PLMJ foundation supports exhibition by Pancho Guedes at the Portuguese consulate in Maputo

On 4 March the Portuguese minister of culture Gabriela Canavilhas opened the exhibition Pancho Guedes - A aventura da Arquitectura, o desafio ao formalismo. The exhibition is supported by the PLMJ Foundation.

Pancho Guedes, renowned painter sculptor and architect, was present at the opening of the exhibition. Also present were the architect José Forjaz and the artist Malangatana, both personal friends of Guedes, together with the president of the PLMJ Foundation’s board, Luís Sàragga Leal and founding partner of MGA, Jorge Graça.

The exhibition, which will be open until 31 March, shows different aspects of Guedes’ surprising work with a particular spotlight on the projects on the Mozambique of the 50s and 60s. Through the photographs of buildings both past and present and drawings from projects by Pancho Guedes some of his 25 styles are on display from Stiloguedes, the most emblematic to Espaços Torcidos e Revirados, Elegante Arte de Curvar Espaços, Maneiras Arqueadas, Torres Temporárias e Fatias de Rua, Escapadelas Neoclássicas, Palhotas e Palácios de Capim, Pedaços de Aldeia, Palácios Euclidianos, Pechinchas num Estilo Mato Tropical, Caixotes e Prateleiras Habitáveis, amongst others.

For the most part the texts are from Guedes himself and were chosen by Graça Gonçalves Pereira, the Portuguese consul-general in Maputo and organiser of the exhibition. They show the "personality" involved in each of the architectural styles. The section on drawings, paintings, sculpture and murals is a delicious extra to this challenge to formalism. An extra that is, in the end, the essence since "(...) the drawing is the prism through which Pancho understands and creates his worlds" (Pedro Guedes, Catalogue of the exhibition of Pancho Guedes at the Berardo Museum, Lisbon, 2009