LISBON.- The last round of exhibition openings at MAAT in 2018 coincides with the Lisbon Web Summit and includes three major shows and a pop-up event, as well as the launch of MAAT’s Video Room exhibition series on expanded video.

In the first exhibition featured in the MAAT’s Video Room program, American duo Jonah Freeman & Justin Lowe present Scenario in the Shade, a surprising multi-environment installation that culminates in a monumental 75-minute-long video piece. In the Main Gallery, the group show Haus Wittgenstein gathers artists and architects that revisit philosophical issues surrounding the house built by the famous Viennese philosopher. Finally, the Project Room series of new solo proposals by Portuguese artists will host João Louro, who represented Portugal at the Venice Biennale in 2015.

Opening of MAAT’s Video Room new series with Jonah Freeman & Justin Lowe, on November 7
New York-based duo Jonah Freeman & Justin Lowe bring us the last European presentation of Scenario in the Shade, an immersive environmental installation that was originally created for the Istanbul Biennale 2017, curated by Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, and had its second appearance at the Kunsthal Charlottenburg, Copenhagen, during the Summer of 2018.

Conceived as a multi-space environment, the exhibition is an architectural and cinematic scenario portraying the youth subcultures of the San San Metroplex, an urban corridor that exists along the coast of California, USA. The San San originates from an idea put forth by futurist Herman Kahn in his book “The Year 2000” (1967). He speculated that the coastal area between San Diego and San Francisco would grow into one giant metropolis, a region he called San San. Based on this fiction, Freeman & Lowe build a mysterious, parallel world articulated through a variety of objects, ephemera, architectural scenarios and a trilogy of films. The cinematic work at the center of the show opens MAAT’s Video Room curatorial programme dedicated to expanded video practices. Curated by Pedro Gadanho and Rita Marques | Nov. 7, 2018 – Feb. 25, 2019 | Video Room [MAAT]

Other exhibitions opening on November 7:
Haus Wittgenstein: Art, Architecture and Philosophy is a group show that celebrates the 90th birthday of the Haus Wittgenstein in Vienna. A selection of works from several institutions and artists, including a group of new artworks from several Portuguese artists, explore the genesis of the only house built by Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951), in articulation with the influent ideas that this thinker introduced during the advent of modernity. Wittgenstein’s project began in 1926 and came to its conclusion two years later, in 1928, giving rise to a house with an eventful history where art, architecture and philosophy intercross and interconnect. Following a historic narrative filled with conflict, anecdotes and relationships that would inspire artists, architects and writers, the exhibition takes us back to Haus Wittgenstein through a series of new artworks commissioned for the occasion, all of which engage in critical dialogue with the house as both a piece of architecture and a contradictory expression of the philosopher’s legacy. Adding to the new pieces, there’s also work from artists that in one way or another experienced the “Wittgenstein effect” and the philosopher’s enthrallment with language, sense, and the world. Artists featured in this show include: Art & Language, Leonor Antunes, John Baldessari, Mel Bochner, Robert Barry, Nuno Cera, Luísa Cunha, João Paulo Feliciano, Ângela Ferreira, Ceal Floyer, Horácio Frutuoso, João Maria Gusmão & Pedro Paiva, Gil Heitor Cortesão, Sabine Hornig, Dereck Jarman, Joseph Kosuth, João Louro, Luis Lázaro Matos, Paulo Mendes, Bruce Nauman, Pedro Cabrita Reis, and Julião Sarmento, among others. Curated by Nuno Crespo | Nov. 7, 2018 – Feb. 25, 2019 | Main Gallery [MAAT]

Linguistic Ground Zero is a new installation specifically created by Portuguese artist João Louro for MAAT's Project Room. A conjunction of sculptural objects and text pieces, the project reflects on moment of historical inflection in which art and society seem to coincide in the willingness to put an end to everything, as it happened with the emergence of artistic vanguards around the two World Wars. Louro’s proposal consists of a reproduction of ‘Little Boy’ – the first atomic bomb in history that razed the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6th August 1945. Like most bombs on which soldiers wrote messages, this reproduction also carries inscriptions. In this case, however, the texts refer to art, politics, culture and the avant-gardes. The result is simple and forceful: destruction, graffiti, poetic and written references come together, providing one of those moments in which art and artists carry out an exercise of complex thinking. Curated by David G. Torres | Nov. 7, 2018 – April 22, 2019 | Project Room [MAAT]