“Myths have always been the best way to convey moral coordinates. Gathered around a muse of fire, our ancestors invented stories about ambiguous characters, allegorical circumstances and intangible lessons.
 
Along these thirty-four and a half feet of paper, Álvaro Siza manages to recreate the atmosphere of being around a campfire, lit only by our imagination. Siza sketches like a burst of ink that is ever wasted. The hand acquires distinct qualities between the front to the back of the book, respectively more gestural and more detailed. The deceptive simplicity of a line drawing does not allow one to hide any mistakes. The figures sometimes seem elongated or exaggerated in order to emphasize the right scale for the action, frame by frame and in slow motion.
 
Some manuscripts, such as the mystical pustaha of the Toba Batak, used the same accordion-like folding technique for its beauty. However, Álvaro Siza exceeds all expectations with his leporello – named after the servant responsible for Don Giovanni's long list of conquests. These sheets will become an everlasting monument to the artist, one whose uniform is poetry and whose tool is his talent.”
 
Essays by António Choupina architect, curator, and friend of Siza, and François Burkhardt, historian and critic of architecture and design.