Eduardo Lourenço, the voice that echoes
On a day of national mourning for the death of Eduardo Lourenço, Casa da Arquitectura publishes, in homage, a text in which the curator of the exhibition, architect Nuno Grande, recalls one of the greatest Portuguese thinkers of the 20th century.
Eduardo Lourenço, the voice that echoes
Nuno Grande
Between April and August 2018, Eduardo Lourenço's voice echoed daily through the Casa da Arquitetura Exhibition Gallery. The projection of an interview held in Lisbon, in 2014, opened the space for the exhibition “The Universalists, 50 years of Portuguese architecture”, an event that I curated for the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in 2016, at Cité de l´architecture et du patrimoine, in Paris, and which, in good time, Matosinhos later knew how to welcome.
Eduardo Lourenço was the guiding thread of this research-exhibition on universalism. As I wrote then in the catalogue, “Lourenço covers a set of themes that help us to mark out temporal and conceptual arcs of Portuguese universalism, and that we place in the specific field of architectural culture. These successive periods frame the thinking and practice of countless architects, given the cultural and social circumstances that, inside and outside Portugal, gave context and meaning to his work. Architectural universalism is here confronted or in dialogue: with the influence of modern internationalism, but also of nationalism, in the last phase of the Portuguese dictatorship (1960-1974); with the final decade of Portuguese colonialism (1971-1975); with the Carnation Revolution (1974-1979); with the process of integration of Portugal in the European Community (1980-2000); and the impact of globalization (2001-2016). ”
Throughout the exhibition, each of these five themes would be introduced by excerpts from some of Eduardo Lourenço's (many) seminal essays: “Mythic psychoanalysis of the Portuguese destiny” (1978); “Non-decolonization” (1990); “From the blue nightmare to the identity orgy” (1989); “Europe and Us” (1987); and “European Twilight” (2013). In the interview given, the author stated that “Portuguese universalism is defined by default”, in contrast to the superbness of Central European Illuminist Universalism that has always wanted to be the cultural standard of the West, at least since the 18th century. In some way, our “heterodox” (as in Lourenço) and “heteronymic” (as in Pessoa) condition will explain much of this strange “thing” that is to be Portuguese, something that the essayist has obstinately revealed, throughout his entire life. life.
Eduardo Lourenço has always put himself in the place of the Other, or of all Others, to understand his. He died today, December 1, 2020 - Independence Day of Portugal, it is said -, perhaps to remind us that, in this cyclical alterity, we have never been, and never will be, truly independent in relation to anything or anyone; contrary to what the most latter-day nationalisms proclaim, which he has always insisted on repudiating. A final Lourencian irony that, today, he himself decided to bequeath us.
Nuno Grande
Between April and August 2018, Eduardo Lourenço's voice echoed daily through the Casa da Arquitetura Exhibition Gallery. The projection of an interview held in Lisbon, in 2014, opened the space for the exhibition “The Universalists, 50 years of Portuguese architecture”, an event that I curated for the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in 2016, at Cité de l´architecture et du patrimoine, in Paris, and which, in good time, Matosinhos later knew how to welcome.
Eduardo Lourenço was the guiding thread of this research-exhibition on universalism. As I wrote then in the catalogue, “Lourenço covers a set of themes that help us to mark out temporal and conceptual arcs of Portuguese universalism, and that we place in the specific field of architectural culture. These successive periods frame the thinking and practice of countless architects, given the cultural and social circumstances that, inside and outside Portugal, gave context and meaning to his work. Architectural universalism is here confronted or in dialogue: with the influence of modern internationalism, but also of nationalism, in the last phase of the Portuguese dictatorship (1960-1974); with the final decade of Portuguese colonialism (1971-1975); with the Carnation Revolution (1974-1979); with the process of integration of Portugal in the European Community (1980-2000); and the impact of globalization (2001-2016). ”
Throughout the exhibition, each of these five themes would be introduced by excerpts from some of Eduardo Lourenço's (many) seminal essays: “Mythic psychoanalysis of the Portuguese destiny” (1978); “Non-decolonization” (1990); “From the blue nightmare to the identity orgy” (1989); “Europe and Us” (1987); and “European Twilight” (2013). In the interview given, the author stated that “Portuguese universalism is defined by default”, in contrast to the superbness of Central European Illuminist Universalism that has always wanted to be the cultural standard of the West, at least since the 18th century. In some way, our “heterodox” (as in Lourenço) and “heteronymic” (as in Pessoa) condition will explain much of this strange “thing” that is to be Portuguese, something that the essayist has obstinately revealed, throughout his entire life. life.
Eduardo Lourenço has always put himself in the place of the Other, or of all Others, to understand his. He died today, December 1, 2020 - Independence Day of Portugal, it is said -, perhaps to remind us that, in this cyclical alterity, we have never been, and never will be, truly independent in relation to anything or anyone; contrary to what the most latter-day nationalisms proclaim, which he has always insisted on repudiating. A final Lourencian irony that, today, he himself decided to bequeath us.
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The Universalists © Hélder Edgar
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