Antunes created a new installation for the abbey’s seventeenth century library, a space where craftsmanship, scholarship and devotion converge. She studied the abbey’s archives and architecture, and approaches the library itself as a repository of knowledge held in materials, proportions and forms. Her work is installed beneath the stucco ceiling depicting scenes from the life of Saint Norbert and draws attention to the anonymous, collective labour through which buildings are made and maintained. Architecture appears not as a fixed monument, but as a living accumulation of skills, gestures and relationships. On 27 March 2027, the work will be activated by a concert, in collaboration with STUK, dedicated to the pioneering French composer Éliane Radigue.

About the artist

Leonor Antunes is based in Lisbon. She creates sculptural installations in rope, leather, wood, brass, glass and textiles that draw on histories of modernism, architecture and craft, and on women designers and architects overlooked by dominant narratives. Her works are made in close collaboration with artisans, using techniques such as weaving, knotting, leatherwork and metalwork. Antunes represented Portugal at the 58th Venice Biennale and has exhibited at Whitechapel Gallery, SFMOMA, Mudam Luxembourg, Museo Tamayo and Pirelli HangarBicocca.