Architecture and sculpture are distinct disciplines, yet they have much in common. Architects thrive on art, while for artists, the built world can be a domain for research, allowing them to incorporate elements into a creative process. The work of Portuguese artist Fernanda Fragateiro positions itself within this creative field. Through publications, she developed a fascination with the work of Belgian architect Marie-José Van Hee (b. 1950). The title of her exhibition at Irene Laub Gallery: She always starts by planting a tree is based on a text written by Florian Heilmeyer, published in 2023.

Van Hee does not opt to suggest visual spectacle or movement; she seeks tranquility and restraint. With her attention to detail, use of color, and especially her intense search for the correct proportions of the interior spaces. There is a strong affinity between Fragateiro’s work and Van Hee’s practice. Both are looking for the intimate scale of human experience. Her installation is not meant to illustrate Van Hee’s work, but rather to resonate with it through a broader reflection on memory, modernist legacies, and the transmission of knowledge.

With her installation, Fragateiro aims to bring together aspects of Van Hee work, crystallized into fragments, within a well-considered spatial setting. The exhibition space is a defining element in her story. The poetic relationship between the interior and exterior space is one of the themes in the work of both women.

Fragateiro’s white sculpture (Unrepaired 5) can be seen as an abstraction of a floor plan, where subtle proportions are at stake, independent of any functional description. The vertical sculptures Reading room (green) allude to nature, the tree growing upward. Anyone who studies the oeuvre of Álvaro Siza will note that the presence of a solitary tree, or its planting, is a frequent occurrence. A form of respect and humility that is also present in the oeuvre of Van Hee.

Architectural magazines offer text and images of the concrete world. Usually, they show a discovery of the new and the unknown. Sometimes, they instil a sense of wonder; after all, it remains paper, to be collected or discarded. An important element of the exhibition are the paper sculptures: old publications grouped and cut into blocks. The image of building blocks emerges. Fragateiro approaches books and archives archaeologically by cutting, layering and transforming them. The process is about reconstructing meaning, digging through cultural sediments to give them a new, spatial form.

The Calke Green colour is the one Van Hee often uses in her projects. It is Fernanda Fragateiro’s tribute to this grand dame of Belgian architecture, who, with her homes, built an exceptional oeuvre. In 2024, Van Hee became the first woman to receive the prestigious Alvar Aalto Medal.

The title She always starts by planting a tree can be read as a methodology: to begin by grounding, rooting, preparing. It also suggests a form of feminine lineage – an act of homage that is also generative, opening space for other women’s voices and creative gestures.

(Text by Marc Dubois, architect Hon Friba)