Lisbon Architecture Triennale

A programme of British Council-supported events and opportunities for artists within the 2013 internationally-acclaimed programme led by British chief curator Beatrice Galilee. 

“Close, Closer” was the third Lisbon Architecture Triennale, and ran from 12 September to 15 December 2013. The Triennale consisted of a programme of exhibitions, debates, installations and events all exploring architecture as a living, social, cultural and artistic force. 

To the impressive programme curated by Beatrice Galilee, the British Council Portugal added, in the opening week of the Triennale, a range of opportunities for Portuguese artists to meet and work with their British counterparts, including some early-career fashion designers who worked with Bart Hess, and a group of dancers, choreographers, digital artists and videographers who worked with Marshmallow Laser Feast.

Emerging Portuguese fashion designer, Vitor Ramalhão was the British Council apprentice to Bart Hess. See our Flickr site for images.

British Council Portugal also partnered the Triennale through our patronage of a Crisis Buster grant.

The Bart Hess and Marshmallow Laser Feast installations were presented within the FUTURE PERFECT installations which took place at the Museu da Electricidade October-December 2013. 

Imagine you're in a large, dark, empty room wearing headphones. The space is filled with haze, with slowly moving abstract light sculptures piercing through, created by projections and laser. Your every move is tracked by cameras. As you move through the space, the sounds you hear on your headphones slowly change - using precise binaural sound spatialisation - depending on your position and the direction you’re facing. You navigate this abstract landscape following these sounds.

The landscape is constantly shifting. The sounds evolve, and are complimented by sheets of projections and laser that move and animate in correspondence with the shifting soundscape. The projections in the haze create solid surfaces, almost tangible - but upon contact you pass straight through. We work with laser scanned 3D data of icebergs to create these projections, processed to become animated, deforming abstract light sculptures.

Through this medium we create a visceral experience of a landscape that no longer exists. You are hearing and seeing ghosts of the arctic that are now no more.

Like ice sheets it creaks and cracks, paths of sound lead to sweet-spots where branches align, ices sheets collapse, streams become torrents become waterfalls.

From his studio in East London, Bart Hess explores several fields combining material studies, animation and photography in a surrealist manner. With his fascination for the human body and the manipulation of it, Hess pushes the boundaries of the textile design profession: his designs transcend the craft, as Hess chooses to extend them via other media such as film, photography and animation. His futuristic materials and textures blur the boundary between textile and skin, human and new species. 

With his work Hess has obtained an independent position in the world of fashion, design and art. His list of international collaborations and clients include prestigious names such as Lady Gaga, Lucy McRae, Palais de Tokyo and Nick Knight. 

Projects (selected)

• 2013. Heart to Mouth, Nowness, London (UK)
• 2012. MUGLER, animation / illustration, Paris (FR)
• 2012. Shaved, film, Nowness, London (UK)
• 2011. Lady Gaga, artist stylist, video, New York (USA)
• 2011. Maharam, upholstery, New York (USA)
• 2011. Iris van Herpen, textiles, Arnhem (NL)
• 2010. Lady Gaga, artist stylist, Born This Way, London (UK)
• 2010. Fashion Carousel, Palais de Tokyo, performance, Paris (FR)
• 2010. Vogue, artist stylist, New York (USA)
• 2010. AnOtherMagazine, artist stylist, London (UK)
• 2010. Ann Sofie Back, textiles, Stockholm (SW)

Group exhibitions (selected):

• 2012. Border Lines, Beit Ha’ir Tel-Aviv Museum (Is)
• 2012. Talking Textiles, Stockholm (SE)
• 2011. Indigo Blue, Bensimon Gallery, Paris (FR)
• 2010. Fashion Carousel, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (FR)
• 2010. Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas (VE)
• 2010. Design Biennale Saint Etienne, Saint Etienne, (FR)
• 2009. Freeze! , International Medtech Art Show, Taipei (TW)
• 2008. Family of Form, Instituut Neerlandais, Paris, (FR)

More information about Bart Hess

Part of the programme of the 3rd Lisbon Architecture Triennale, Crisis Buster was a grants scheme aimed at civic, community and cultural projects, designed for Lisbon and its inhabitants.

The British Council was delighted to be Patron of one of the Crisis Buster projects: Juventude na Street.

Juventude na Street aimed to create a youth group for girls aged 10 to 17 years old, in the social housing neighbourhood of Horta Nova, a community where young people are left alone for great parts of the day without adult supervision. The project saw the renovation of a community space in the neighbourhood: a renovation designed with the support of an architect, but carried out by the young women themselves.