to Dec 1 | INSTALLATION ART | Overflow by Tadashi Kawamata | 5€

There’s nothing artistic about pollution…until now. To raise awareness about the consumption of natural resources and the high level of refuse in our oceans, MAAT commissioned Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata to create an installation using decrepit boats, discarded plastics, and other found objects from the port of Nazaré to create an installation work in the oval gallery.

From the organizers:
Tadashi Kawamata’s solo exhibition Overflow at MAAT’s Oval Gallery is centered around questions of global ecology and tourism. The immersive installation invites the viewer to experience a seascape of remains which follows an ecological catastrophe, where debris transported by the world’s seas are imagined to engulf civilization.

The Japanese artist, who is known worldwide for his large-scale sustainable architectural environments, developed this project during one year of research and fieldwork in Portugal, culminating in a workshop with artists and architects led by architectural collective Os Espacialistas. The large-scale commission at MAAT integrates both plastic residues and abandoned boats collected on Portugal’s shores during beach cleaning campaigns by volunteer organization Brigada do Mar, Almada City Hall and the Fishing Port of Nazaré. These elements come together in a sculptural form that evokes the polluting elements aggregated by the perpetual movements of the ocean, as well as global tourism and its fatal consumption of natural resources.