Angola’s capital city, Luanda features in global ranks as the 15th fastest growing city on the planet. It is the fastest growing Portuguese-speaking city in the world and one that aspires to compete with existing megalopolis around the globe, both for its construction levels and incoming population fluxes. With this in mind as well as Portugal’s historical and political link with the city, Experimenta challenged the organizing committee of the Trienal de Luanda for a presentation centred on time. The Special Project Luanda: Anatomy of Speed arose from this challenge.

Curated by Fernando Alvim, this programme features two different projects – a debate and an exhibition and tackles the notion of speed and acceleration.


EXHIBITION | 10.09.09 - 08.11.09

Four different moments in times, seen through the eyes of three Angolan creative artists, who address the speed of present and future and the emotional underlying power of memory.

curator — Fernando Alvim
participants — Kiluanji (photography); Jorge Palma (video); Nguxi (video);


DEBATE | 13.09.09 | 15:00-16:00

The starting point of this debate is a lecture Paulo Cunha e Silva presented in Luanda in 2006/7, entitled “Luanda: Anatomy of Speed”. It focuses on a new approach to the Angolan capital, intersecting the issues of time, speed and acceleration with those of creation, sociology and urban development.

participants — Fernando Alvim; José Octávio Serra van Dunem;