iMAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and TechnologyBelém
João Pimenta Gomes – New Age
A sound installation of around ten resonant, leaf-like metal objects, made for MAAT's Project Room by the Lisbon musician and visual artist.
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The metal leaves in this room come from a 1950s French instrument. The Cristal Baschet is played by rubbing wet fingers along glass rods, and petal-shaped aluminium resonators carry the sound. João Pimenta Gomes, a Lisbon musician, kept only the resonators, made around ten of his own and wired them to play voices he recorded and processed himself.
You walk into MAAT Gallery's Project Room and the leaves are the speakers. The artist set the angles and distances between them so each voice runs into the next, which the museum's guide calls "a chrome choir". The critic Vítor Belanciano wrote that seeing and hearing become almost the same experience.
It's one room of continuous sound, so give it a slow listen rather than a lap. Entry comes with the MAAT ticket, €16 or €12 for residents in Portugal; closed Tuesdays. The museum's guide opens by saying that if "the dawning of the age of Aquarius" brings no song to mind, you're probably too young for this title.
Look for
The leaf resonators
Around ten aluminium leaves modelled on the Cristal Baschet's petal-shaped resonators, each one working as a loudspeaker rather than a sculpture alone.
The chrome choir
Voices the artist recorded and processed himself, sent through the metal so each one blurs into the voice of the leaf beside it.
The placement
Look at the gaps between the pieces: the artist set every distance and angle so the voices keep feeding into one another.
Good for
- An Hour Or Less
- Going Solo
- Locals Who've Seen It All
Skip if
You want things to look at rather than listen to: this is one room of sounding metal leaves.
Free in the same building
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Image credits
9
- João Pimenta Gomes – New AgePhoto © tspt. Courtesy of the artist.
- Mostra Espanha 2026: Guest Works by Maruja MalloColección Centro de Arte Fundación María José Jove / VEGAP
- Paradise, Today.Courtesy of MAC/CCB – Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture Centre
- Ângela Ferreira: Here I StandLaurent Lecat
- MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and TechnologyStefan Bethke / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Museu Nacional dos CochesBosc d'Anjou / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- MAC/CCB – Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture CentreHerbert wie, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Museu Nacional de ArqueologiaJose Luis Filpo Cabana, CC BY 3.0
- Museu de MarinhaNan Palmero, CC BY 2.0