MAAT hosts the Gallery Exclusive Session ahead of the world premiere of SIZA
- Gallery Editorial
- Oct 30
- 2 min read
MAAT hosted the Gallery Exclusive Session, a private event that preceded the world premiere of the documentary SIZA, produced by Gallery and directed by Augusto Custodio.
Presented by OTIIMA, the gathering brought together a select group of guests connected to architecture, culture and innovation, in a moment of celebration and reflection on the work and legacy of Álvaro Siza Vieira.
Among the attendees were Martha Thorne, Director of Institutional Relations and Curation at Gallery and former Executive Director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, Dr. Pedro Siza, the architect’s nephew, João Simões, CEO of OTIIMA, Diogo Moura, Councillor for Economy and Innovation at the Lisbon City Council, João Pedro Xavier, Director of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Porto, and Cláudia Antunes, representative of the Portuguese Order of Architects, among other distinguished guests.
The event marked the official premiere of SIZA, which will take place in the first half of January, consolidating Gallery as one of the leading international platforms dedicated to the memory and contemporary thought of architecture.
MAAT Central, with its symbolic presence, the architectural body that connects the former thermoelectric power station and contemporary arts on the banks of the Tagus, provided the natural stage for this dialogue between architecture and memory.
The documentary SIZA has been selected for 24 international film festivals, a distinction that positions it among the most acclaimed productions in the field of contemporary architectural documentaries.
These nominations reflect not only the aesthetic and narrative excellence of the work, but also its ability to translate architecture into emotion, thought and memory, three dimensions rarely aligned with such precision in audiovisual language.
By assembling an unprecedented archive of images and testimonies spanning nine decades of Álvaro Siza Vieira’s life and creation, the film transforms the viewer’s gaze into a witness to the very history of modern architecture.
With this and other projects, Gallery reaffirms its purpose of creating a living archive of architecture, where memory becomes contemporary language and history gains permanence through image.
More than a portrait, SIZA is a living archive that reinforces Gallery’s role as an institution dedicated to the preservation and global dissemination of architectural thought.
