Nairy Baghramian. Sonae//Serralves Project 2014

This year's edition of the Sonae Project addresses the history of the sculptures in Serralves Park and introduces the work by leading international contemporary artists. The artist, Nairy Baghramian, who lives and works in Berlin, has been invited to join the project in 2014 and will have the challenge of creating a new work for the exterior of the Serralves Museum. This project will continue over the coming years: each year a new artist will be invited to think and create works for Serralves’ outdoor spaces.

The finished work, "Cold Shoulder", will comprise four large-scale sculptural elements in a form inspired by the tailoring element of the shoulder pad. The shoulder pad is associated, among other things, with the fashion of power dressing adopted by women in the workplace. Made from an iron armature and covered with epoxy-resin, fabric and sanded fibreglass, the sculptures are the result of an intense process of construction, modeling and finishing hand-crafted by the artist. The four finished sculptures in tones of violet, pink and flesh-tones will be presented respectively in a group of three that stand, lean and rest across the lawn of the Pátio das Betulas, with the largest element standing vertically in front of the Serralves Villa on the central parterre. It is worth noting that Baghramian´s reference to the monument using a vernacular of the popular culture of women´s fashion, her use of scale and colour, bear a conscious relationship to the work of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen, whose iconic Plantoir has become synonymous with Serralves. In its occupation of these visible sites of Serralves, Cold Shoulder by Nairy Baghramian brings a major sculptural work in dynamic dialogue with the architecture of the museum and park and their site within Serralves Park.

Curators: Suzanne Cotter and Marta Moreira de Almeida