Leonor Antunes: a seam, a surface, a hinge or a knot – Venice Biennale 2019

Leonor Antunes combines her sculpture and craft to open up conversations within architectural spaces. Here she discusses the 20th-century figures, both known and lesser known, who inspired her Portugal installation for the Venice Biennale

Architecture, craft, and design history collide in Leonor Antunes’ elegant installation in the ancient reception rooms of the Palazzo Giustinian, which overlooks the Grand Canal and was created by Baldassare Longhena (1598-1682), one of Venice’s most celebrated architects. It is Antunes’ (b1972, Lisbon) second appearance at the biennale: she exhibited in the Viva Arte Viva exhibition in 2017, but this time she is the sole occupant of Portugal’s flagship space. She has taken the bold move of stripping out all the heavy drapes and Renaissance paintings (or turning them to face the wall), the better to let her sculptures breathe.

She says: “I’ve never dealt with this period of history before. It is so charged … quite baroque. It’s a negotiation - this is the term that describes it best - a negotiation between me and the space, daily to imagine how can I insert another layer in the room … Putting another time frame into the room which is more modern, creating a dialogue. Not hiding anything, creating movement in space and another time.”

Leonor Antunes: a seam, a surface, a hinge or a knot
Portugal in Venice
Palazzo Giustinian Lolin, San Marco 2893
11 May – 24 November 2019

Interview by VERONICA SIMPSON
Filmed by MARTIN KENNEDY