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Fragments of unfinished encyclopedia

The 26-year-long extraordinary story of the creation of a sculpture wall, which is an unfinished encyclopedia of geography and scientific discoveries


Date:
30 November 2020
Year :
1995-2021
Location :
Encarnação subway station, Lisbon

In 1994, Françoise Schein and the Inscrire Association completed the construction of the Parque Metro Station in Lisbon. An underground cathedral dedicated to the great Portuguese maritime discoveries, a station that has become a heritage for Lisbon and a place for tourists to visit.

A year later, the Metropolitano of Lisboa commissioned a second project for an artistic pavilion above the station, in dialogue with the underground cathedral and dedicated to major scientific discoveries. Thus was born this artwork in the shape of a ship’s bow, composed of 37 sculptures, installed in a modernist and marine-style building above Parque station, called Café Cartographique. This monumental work was designed by F. Schein and American architect Elaine Monchak. Unfortunately, due to internal reasons, the Metropolitano interrupted the production of sculptures in 1997.

It took over 23 years for the project to come back to life in a new subway station named Encarnação (Incarnation).

The architect Alberto Barradas built this magnificent immaculate white station in which, together with F. Schein, they imagined a new structure designed to receive 32 sculptures of the “Fragments of Unfinished Encyclopedia”.

TEAM

2020-2021
Françoise Schein, artist architect
Thomas Régent, model architect
Lohana Schein, legal consultant
Daniel Boorstin, historian, Washington,USA

PARTNERS AND SUPPORTS

2020
Luis Almeida, Metropolitano de Lisboa

1995
Elaine Monchak, architect, NY,USA
Pascal Lavoué, assistant artist
Rita Gomes Ferrão, assistant artist
Maria João Ribeiro, assistant graphic designer
Marc Mimram, engineering, Paris
FTL Happold, engineer, London

SPONSORS

Metropolitano de Lisboa

PROJECT LED BY

Françoise Schein
Thomas Régent

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