VENICE.- The 11th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, that took place under the generic title Out There: Architecture Beyond Building, directed by Aaron Betsky, ended November 23rd. According to the organization, the number of visitors achieved almost 130 thousand, which represents an unprecedented audience response.

The Portuguese intervention at the biennale, entitled Out Here: Disquieted Architecture, conceived by architect Eduardo Souto de Moura and artist Ângelo de Sousa and curated by philosopher José Gil and architect Joaquim Moreno, was of great visual impact and was considered one of the most interesting pavilions of this year's Biennale:

Curated by José Gil and Joaquim Moreno, "Out Here: Disquieted Architecture" is an ambitious representation of Portugal, since it contributes to the consciousness that "the site is specific". In Venice, Souto de Moura and Ângelo de Sousa were Venetians and they applied a mirror mask to the scene; in doing so, they accomplished a capriccio. Rank to the level of the other palaces, to the level of the illusion, the Fondaco Marcello begins to notice: "I am a monument" (…) Diogo Seixas Lopes, Arch., Público newspaper, p. 5-7, September 27th, 2008.

The Portuguese pavilion was visited by more than 10 thousand visitors, and much more were those who observed the exterior intervention from the Canal Grande, a surprising façade at Fondaco Marcello that reflected moving images, duplicating the surrounding landscape, and gave the different points of view reached by the observer at its passage, disclosed to a multiplicity of perspectives and perceptions on the city.

In the scope of the Portuguese participation in this 11th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, in regard to its cultural program, it was also of notice the conferences held under the title "Ricordo al futuro – Património dell'esistente e paesaggi urbani contemporanei", that put together different speakers around the subject of the new urban landscapes and contemporary inhabiting. Eduardo Souto de Moura had the honour to perform the closing conference of this initiative that took place in Venice on the days 22nd and 23rd of October.