With a profound resonance with the work and life of the legendary Italian-Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi, OPEN Architecture conducts the exhibition design for her first exhibition in China, The Poetics of Survival, at the Power Station of Art, Shanghai, seeking to reveal the enduring spiritual force of a master whose ideas continue to resonate across time and geographies. The exhibition is on view from July 25 to October 25, 2026.
The main body of the exhibition is organized around a single continuous curve that gently unfolds through the rectangular ground-floor gallery, using natural linen to define a sequence of distinct yet interconnected exhibition spaces. Within this flowing spatial framework, rectilinear display cases are carefully positioned and oriented, creating a deliberate contrast between supple and rigid forms as well as curvilinear and orthogonal directions. Architectural models and most of other key exhibits are distributed throughout the gallery as freestanding islands. At the same time, large-scale projections are caught by the curved linen surfaces, transforming them into dynamic media and animating the exhibition space.
Rather than encouraging viewing from the perimeter, the spatial layout is conceived to immerse visitors among the exhibits. Therefore, openings are intentionally positioned in the linen curtains at the center of each enclosed section by gently lifting the linen, inviting visitors to pass through the curtains themselves and become surrounded by the work. Lighting, which is carefully gauged, quietly aids in this immersive experience. The warm illumination, together with extensive overhead and wall-washing lighting fixtures, highlights the exhibits while minimizing the visual presence of their supporting structures, lending the objects a sense of suspension and lightness. The soft curtains subtly sway with the airflow, imbuing the suspended exhibits and projections with a delicate sense of breath, and infusing the exhibition with a sense of dynamic vitality.
Thematically, the exhibition design weaves together the multiplicity of Lina’s design practice, ideas, and life. In a seemingly serendipitous fashion, the linen fabric defines nine zones that bring together various media and modes of presentation, including drawings, sketches, models, photographs, and videos, while highlighting Lina’s seminal projects encompassing architecture, furniture, set design, folk art, and writing.
The use of linen carries a multiplicity within itself that goes beyond its apparent functions and aesthetics. It is the spatial divider, the backdrop for the exhibits, and the mediator that calibrates the atmosphere of the exhibition space, all while echoing the unique qualities of Lina’s practice. The natural linen was deliberately selected for its weight, drape, translucency, and capacity to receive projections. Moreover, the natural, unadorned, and earthy quality of the linen resonates with the ethos of Lina, who engaged deeply with the Brazilian vernacular culture and incorporated it into her own practice with a spirit of resourcefulness and genuine cultural empathy. Lightweight, adaptable, and reusable, this single continuous linen element creates a layered spatial experience through remarkably economical means, echoing Lina’s resourcefulness and ingenuity in design. The linen fabric also serves as a soft “wall” surface that backgrounds all the suspended exhibits. Meanwhile, all exhibition texts are silkscreen-printed directly onto the linen, rather than presented on separate labels.
In the lobby of PSA, a replica of the indoor pond at SESC Pompéia provides a pleasant public gathering space, resonating with Lina’s lifelong pursuit of using public space as an instrument for creating the social and cultural conditions for collective life. In Lina’s version, the pond embodies the São Francisco River, which runs across Brazil. It was “transported” to Shanghai at its original scale. However, in the PSA gallery, it is not embedded into the ground as it does at SESC Pompéia, but instead, appears to levitate slightly above the ground surface. The bottom of the pool is covered with carefully selected pebbles of various sizes, arranged to achieve a balanced composition: smaller stones fill the visible gaps, while larger stones are strategically placed as visual accents. The pool is also equipped with four water outlets in the ceiling that continuously provide water to the pool through gentle dripping. It creates rippling reflections across the water surface, while compensating for water lost through evaporation.
OPEN also custom-designed some furniture and ancillary pieces, including the Beam Bench, the display cabinets, etc., transforming mundane materials into intriguing details throughout the exhibition. For example, the divider marking the ticketed zone in the museum lobby was made by combining a concrete base for glass display panels designed by Lina and the red wood latticework from SESC Pompéia; the rocks used in the pond also became weights anchoring the linen fabric; plywood strips were assembled into display platforms for models and furniture; and rebars were folded into simple brackets to replace the distance barriers commonly seen in museums.
What makes Lina’s work so unique is that its diversity, vitality, and social engagement offer a vivid lens into the time and place she inhabited. Deeply devoted to Brazil’s society and culture, Lina dissolved the boundaries between observation and creation, transforming her lived experiences into works that continue to resonate with immediacy. On the other hand, presenting Lina’s work within a setting that is informed by her own design ethos and sensibility allows audiences to encounter not only her work, but also get a sense of the world that inspired it. Therefore, Lina’s work and the exhibition, together, become a stage where the audience get a glimpse of the everyday reality of Brazil in Lina’s time. As visitors journey through the whole exhibition, a comprehensive picture of Lina’s work and her layered persona gradually unfolds against the backdrop of her era. More than a retrospective, the exhibition offers an encounter with a master whose “poetics of survival,” informed by her ingenuity, versatility, and generosity, continue to speak powerfully to our own time.
