Tuesday April 8, 2025 | 3:00 – 8:00 PM
3:00 PM – Open Doors
6:30 PM – Walkthrough and artist talk by Cristina Massena
Location: Residency Unlimited
360 Court Street (main green church doors), Brooklyn NY 11231 (map)
RU resident artist Cristina Massena presented the works she developed at Pratt Institute as a Visiting Scholar. She reflected on how her residency experience in NYC has influenced her practice at the intersection of architecture and fine arts. Cristina Massena’s proposed project results from her visual observations of NYC. It implies constructing a concept of a structure seeking to reveal spatialities that are deprived of visibility, or often do not allow themselves to express it through objects, forms, or systems. The project focuses on exploring, questioning, and representing a concept of place through its objective and subjective relationships.
“This is the place where madness, wonder, and invention merge into some kind of movement. The movement of inner search, of excess or lack, of disorder within order. Without definition, a city that exists outside of time in a real space? It inhabits the mind, where tears are swallowed, and sorrows are released. It is a place of growth in a state of absent presence. Time does not exist, only gravity and gesture. The image is distorted; nothing is possessed. A weary rest. Sounds cry out for some abstract appeal. It is a passage of thoughts, of errant or mad circuits where dreams have either fallen asleep or persist. It is a paradox, a constant contrast of those trying to grasp body and mind in some form of existence. It has no scale, it is immeasurable. The light is pure, depraved, unattainable in any reflection. Without filters, only passable—it is a deconstructed structure. We are the boundary between reality and fiction. An urban symphony in human silence. NY.” – Cristina Massena
Click above to see the images from the program
About:
Cristina Massena lives and works in Porto, Portugal. She graduated in Architecture after studying in Porto and Mendrisio with architects such as Eduardo Souto Moura and Peter Zumthor. For over 13 years, Cristina Massena worked independently as an architect. She also collaborated with small and large-scale studios, including Architecturestudio in Paris. With a background in architecture, Cristina Massena began exploring its intersections with fine arts. In 2019, she completed a Master’s in Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Lisbon. Her research led her to question the boundaries of in-between spaces where various artistic disciplines intersect. Cristina Massena works with drawing, painting, and sculpture, integrating materials and techniques beyond their traditional uses. Her work has been part of solo and group exhibitions at various galleries and museums in Portugal. The artist was a finalist for the Norberto Fernandes Prize for Art and Technology, Altice Foundation, 2024 edition.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
