Voyager 03

Co-curated Voyager 03, one of the biggest itinerant projects for the dissemination of Portuguese culture.

Maintaining its original idea of showcasing Portuguese contemporary creativity, which began with Voyager 01, in 2003 experimenta created a new exhibition format and a new defining image. Designed to travel the European roads with unparalleled mobility and independence, V03 did an international tour – Barcelona, in front of MACBA, Paris, in front of Palais Tokyo and Musée d’Art Contemporain, Madrid , in front of Reina Sofia – before being presented in Lisbon in Bienal EXD’03 from September to November in Praça do Comércio. 

This mobile exhibition engaged with ideas related to movement and travel, speed and time, as well as the open space. Voyager 03 was in itself a design project and a communication operation – the protagonist was Voyager’s concept and design; that is, the idea behind its structure as a device and the way it was conceived as a three dimensional object. Therefore, the first work presented by Voyager03 was itself, a future exhibition device meant to showcase future works. 

The outputs brought by Voyager 03 were the result of invitations sent to over 40 Portuguese artists. They represent the intense collaborative work between both parties, the challengers and the challenged. V03 was designed to be self transportable and driven through Europe – meant to be parked and expanded in the public space of every city of the itinerary. 

The compact construction and minimal space, created on a TIR truck, generated exhibition solutions that merged with situations created by artists and designers. The global soundtrack was distributed indoors and outdoors, underlining the unexpected uses and multidisciplinary intersections between contents.

Voyager 03 introduced the Lisbon and Portugal to the international circuits of creativity and contributed to an effective renewal of the image of recent Portuguese culture.

Concept, Artistic Direction and Commissioner: Guta Moura Guedes, Pedro Gadanho and João Paulo Feliciano

Design: Miguel Vieira Baptista

Design Assistant: Henrique Ralheta

Technical Consultant: José Rui Marcelino

Audio Consultant: João Moura 

Communication Design: RMAC [Ricardo Mealha and Ana Cunha]

Invited creators:

Architecture _ A.S*, CVDB Arquitectos, E-Studio, Emit Flesti, Global – João Gomes da Silva, Luís Pereira Miguel, Nuno Mateus Guerreiro, Patrícia Chorão Ramalho + João Miranda, S’A Arquitectos

Photography _ Cátia Serrão, Daniel Malhão, Heitor Alvelos, Luís de Barros, Maria Bleck Soares

Video _ Rui Gato, Sandro Aguilar

Visual Arts _ Baltazar Torres, Joana Vasconcelos, Nuno Gonçalves Ferreira, Rui Toscano

Music and Sound Design _ Rafael Toral, Ricardo Jacinto, Sam the Kid

Multimedia _ Tozé Ferreira, Houselab, Sara Pinto Soares

Graphic Design _ Benedita Feijó, Cesária Martins, Nuno Luz, Tiago Machado, João Vasconcelos

“The success achieved by Voyager-01, both in Lisbon and in other European cities, has shown the innovative nature and strong stimulus to creation that characterized the first two editions of ExperimentaDesign.
Voyager-03 will certainly enjoy the same or greater success, bringing together projects conceived for it “ex novo” by many Portuguese creators. Stimulating creativity and interdisciplinarity in the arts, it is at the cutting edge of contemporary creation in Portugal.
It is recognised that Portuguese creators in the various arts have made a major contribution to the projection of the national community in today’s world, in interacting with the cultures of other peoples. By focusing on design as an instrument and process of creation, Voyager-03 underlines its eminently cultural nature. That’s why it contributes to the affirmation of cultural values, ranging from the search for new forms to the contribution towards the integral development of each person – which can only be achieved by understanding the messages that creation incorporates into the objects, helping to enrich the individual, namely by broadening the capacity for evaluation, reflection and critical knowledge that it provides.”

Pedro Roseta, Minister of Culture, 2003