The exhibition “Oscar Niemeyer, 115 years of the infinite curve”, an exhibition about the activity of the famous Brazilian architect, was inaugurated at the Hotel Pestana Casino Park, in Funchal, the only work of his authorship built in Portugal.
Organized by the Regional Secretariat for Tourism and Culture and the Portuguese Language Culture and Citizenship Association (ASCULP), the exhibition is curated by Alexei Waichenberg and Paulo Sergio Niemeyer and marks the 115th anniversary of the architect's birth and 10th of his death, which took place in 2012. .
In a press release, the Secretariat for Tourism and Culture indicates that Madeira was chosen to host the exhibition because the “only built work of the architect in Portugal” is located in Funchal.
“Designed by Oscar Niemeyer in 1966, the Hotel Pestana Casino Park is considered the largest hotel work in Portugal, with an impressive 221 meters long and 24 meters wide, divided into seven floors”, says the statement, explaining that the set, comprising a hotel, a casino and a conference center, it is located on top of a cliff overlooking the port of Funchal.
The exhibition “Oscar Niemeyer, 115 years of the infinite curve” includes a reproduction of the architect's studio, located on Avenida Atlântica, in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, with the exhibition project by architect and urban planner Betina Lorenzetti. In 2007, in an interview with the weekly Expresso, Niemeyer assumed that that project was not his.
"I made the project on a small scale and the Portuguese architect developed it. And he changed some things. So I don't consider it my project", he explained.