A Travel in Fernando Távora’s Travels. (With Álvaro Siza, Alexandre Alves Costa, Fernando Barroso, Sérgio Fernandez, Alcino Soutinho, Manuel Mendes, José António Bandeirinha, Jorge Figueira, Francisco Barata, Eduardo Souto de Moura, 2013-2022)

Abstract

On the occasion of the collection of archive material for the drafting of the monograph A. Esposito, G. Leoni, Fernando Távora. Opera completa (Milan: Electa, 2005), I, at the time a member of the research group, was the direct recipient – during long sessions in his studio in Rua do Aleixo in Porto – of Fernando Távora’s verbal reading of his Diario di bordo, the result of the ‘round-the-world voyage’ he undertook in 1960 thanks to a grant from the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. The re-reading was accompanied by the author’s comments and the recordings of these sessions are now deposited in the Archive of the Marques da Silva Foundation in Porto (AFIMS). A scholarship at the Gulbenkian Foundation in 2012 then allowed me to elaborate a first translation into Italian and an initial notation of the Diary, which flowed into the critical Italian edition published in 2022 (F. Távora, Diario di bordo, edited by A. Esposito, G. Leoni, R. Maddaluno, Siracusa: Letteraventidue 2023). In the course of this work, which spans over twenty years, the writer has had the opportunity not only to reflect on the central role of the journey in Távora’s work, but also to discuss this theme with friends and colleagues of the Portuguese master, fellow travelers or witnesses of the accounts that Távora made part of both his teaching and his project activity. The following text provides both reflections elaborated over time and a summary of the conversations held.