Disoriented Pavilion

In the heart of Lisbon’s Alfama district, the ruins of Pátio Dom Fradique beneath Castelo São Jorge have been transformed into Disoriented Pavilion, a surreal urban garden of brightly coloured, mass-produced plastic flora. The installation turns familiar streetscapes upside down, offering visitors a disorienting encounter with the city’s altered identity and its relationship with heritage, tourism, and commodification.

The garden’s artificial elements clash with the historic textures of the ruins, creating a tension between what is real and what is constructed. As visitors move through the space, the installation becomes a reflection of how cities evolve under pressure from economic forces, and how local life can be overwritten by spectacle. Neon signage marks the pavilion, adding a contemporary flash to the layered history beneath Castelo São Jorge, inviting each person to navigate the intersections between memory, identity, and urban transformation.

Complementing this experience, Pátio Ambulante animates the courtyard with workshops on urban furniture, exhibitions of the neighbourhood’s hidden traces, and a mobile ice cream and crepe shop repurposed from an old firework car. Film projections by the Nucleus of Visual Anthropology and Art (NAVA) offer glimpses into local stories, connecting the past and present. Open on 4th and 25th July from 11:00 to 23:00, the pavilion encourages visitors to reconsider what makes a city authentic and what is lost when space becomes a product.