X is Not a Small Country- Unraveling the Post-Global Era

X Isn’t a Small Country — Unraveling the Post-Global Era is an exhibition that explores our current post-global condition, observing at different scales – territories, cities, infrastructure, platforms, bodies, objects – the processes of deglobalization and geopolitical realignment which, in many cases, were accelerated and distorted in rapidly evolving flow and review cycles during the current pandemic.

Twelve years after the global financial crisis exposed the failures of globalization, what was once a euphoria of interconnectedness has given rise to a more complex condition. Trade wars, refugee crises, rising nationalism, Brexit – and now a global pandemic – are disrupting and reordering the transnational flow of people, ideas and resources in increasingly confusing ways.

The exhibition’s title refers to an iconic poster by Henrique Galvão (“Portugal is not a small country”), who in 1934 promoted the nationalist idea of ​​the then government of Portugal: a “pluricontinental” nation whose overseas possessions were not colonies, but rather integral parts of the sovereign territory. The ways in which many of these former colonial relationships were altered formed a starting point for the exhibition.

Curated by Aric Chen , with Martina Muzi , the exhibition features nine projects recently created by international professionals working in design, architecture and art who investigate, articulate and critique the current convoluted state of the world from multiple geographical perspectives.