Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978) is one of the most influential artists of the 1970s, whose work has continued to be a noted influence of both architects and visual artists since. SPLITTING, CUTTING, WRITING, DRAWING, EATING…GORDON MATTA-CLARK surveys the constructive and destructive verbs that defined his relation to art and architecture, featuring correspondence, drawings, photographs, notebooks, and films related to the artist's key projects, drawn from the archive of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal. Along with his major building cuts from 1973 to 1978, in which laboriously cut holes into floors of abandoned or disused buildings, including A W-Hole House, Conical Intersect, Day’s End, and Splitting (1974), the exhibition also explores his interest in metabolic and cooking processes, including his restaurant Food (1971); his play with language and the syntax of voids, gaps, and abandoned spaces; and the use of drawing as a mode of thinking through space.The exhibition will focus on these social and creative aspects of Matta-Clark´s conception of architecture, or as he put it, "making space without building it."
In addition to archive materials and important works by the artist, the exhibition will also present a selection of works by other artists, including Ed Rusha, Dan Graham, Alvin Baltrop, and Emily Roysdon, that set the context for Matta Clark’s literal and metaphorical gestures, produced in sites of urban reconstruction, abandonment, or renewal, or in economically deprived or marginal contexts.
This exhibition extends the ongoing collaboration between the Serralves Museum and the Canadian Centre for Architecture, following the gift to Serralves of 40 projects from the archive of Álvaro Siza. Previous exhibitions include, "The SAAL Process: Architecture and Participation 1974-1976", in 2014, SPLITTING, CUTTING, WRITING, DRAWING, EATING…GORDON MATTA-CLARK , will be accompanied by a publication with texts by exhibition curators Joao Ribas and Delfim Sardo, as well as documentation of the works, archival materials, and photographs on view.
‘Splitting, Cutting, Writing, Drawing, Eating… Gordon Matta-Clark’ is organized by the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, and Culturgest, Lisbon, where it will be presented in October 2017. It is curated by João Ribas, Deputy Director and Senior Curator at Serralves Museum, and Delfim Sardo, Visual Arts Curator at Culturgest.
