Guimarães in Northern Portugal will be European Capital of Culture 2012. As part of this year of cultural events, “Performance Architecture” is an international ideas competition aimed at choosing proposals for five temporary urban interventions in public spaces considered controversial by the citizens, curated by Pedro Ganho. The 5 selected proposals will be implemented and experienced in Guimarães.
The project intends to draw up architectural and urban strategies that, by reviving performance art approaches, provide new directions as to the roles of architects, artists and designers in the urban context. The competition, meant for multidisciplinary teams, aims at promoting alternative architectural and urban practices to the construction of monuments and other traditional structures by facilities, activities, happenings and urban interventions.
Projects may be submitted online at www.performancearchitecture.guimaraes2012.pt before 6 January 2012. The architect Santiago Cirugeda (Spain), Didier Fiuza Faustino (France), Raumlabor (Germany), Office for Subversive Architecture (Germany) and A77 (Argentina) are the jury members. Though only 5 proposals will be selected for realisation, a maximum of 30 additional proposals will be included in a catalogue and a retrospective, to be exhibited at one of the 5 chosen projects.