Tadashi Kawamata

The exhibition focuses on global tourism and ecology issues. An immersive installation invites the visitor to experience a maritime landscape following an imaginary ecological catastrophe, in which the debris transported by the oceans has engulfed civilization.

This Japanese artist, known worldwide for his large-scale sustainable architectural environments, developed the project over a year, in which he conducted research and fieldwork in Portugal, culminating in a workshop with artists and architects under the supervision of the architectural collective Os Espacialistas. The installation commissioned by MAAT includes plastic waste and abandoned boats, collected on the Portuguese coast during beach cleaning campaigns (with the important contribution of volunteers from Brigada do Mar and associations linked to the Almada City Council and the Maritime Port of Nazaré). These elements compose a sculptural form that represents the pollutants aggregated by the perpetual motions of the oceans, as well as the effects of global tourism and its dramatic consumption of natural resources.

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