Antonio Campos

Antonio Campos Artist , Architect and Curator

While visiting Cape Town, I’ve been thinking about this photograph from August 1991, when Nelson Mandela visited Salvado...
05/12/2025

While visiting Cape Town, I’ve been thinking about this photograph from August 1991, when Nelson Mandela visited Salvador, Bahia, just one year after his release from twenty seven years in prison. Salvador, known for its profound African heritage, granted Mandela honorary citizenship that day. In the image, Mandela is seated, calmly reviewing documents, while my father stands beside him in a beige suit as part of the welcoming delegation. I was there as one of the interpreters, watching my father welcome Mandela, his then wife Winnie, who would divorce him a year after this picture, and the rest of their team. It was an extraordinary moment to witness. Three years later, in 1994, Mandela would become the president of South Africa. Being in Cape Town now gives this memory even greater meaning. It remains a cherished chapter in my personal and family history. 🇿🇦✨

Sossusvlei é um dos lugares mais mágicos da Namíbia. A palavra vlei signif**a brejo em africâner, e Sossusvlei é uma pla...
29/11/2025

Sossusvlei é um dos lugares mais mágicos da Namíbia. A palavra vlei signif**a brejo em africâner, e Sossusvlei é uma planície de argila cercada por algumas das maiores dunas do mundo. O espetáculo f**a por conta da areia luminosa. As dunas mudam de laranja vibrante para vermelho escuro conforme o sol atravessa o céu. A sensação é de caminhar em outro planeta.

As famosas árvores secas da região são acácia camelo. Elas podem viver mais de cem anos e estas morreram há mais de seis séculos quando o rio mudou de curso, mas o deserto tão seco impediu que apodrecessem. Lembrei de Frans Krajcberg ao vê-las ali, paradas no tempo como esculturas naturais que contam uma história de calor, silêncio e resistência.

Plovdiv, Bulgaria, is not just old, it is ancient, older than Rome and older than Athens. This city is 8000 years old an...
28/09/2025

Plovdiv, Bulgaria, is not just old, it is ancient, older than Rome and older than Athens. This city is 8000 years old and feels like a living archive, a place where time folds in on itself. In the old town, painted Revival houses lean over cobblestone streets with wooden balconies that seem to breathe. Roman theaters cut through the hills, Ottoman mosques rest quietly in courtyards, medieval walls hold their ground. Architecture here is not backdrop but a conversation across centuries, layered and alive.

🏔️ CopenHill by BIG is part power plant, part ski slope, and 100% conversation starter. Rising from Copenhagen’s skyline...
26/07/2025

🏔️ CopenHill by BIG is part power plant, part ski slope, and 100% conversation starter. Rising from Copenhagen’s skyline, it turns waste to energy infrastructure into public space, complete with hiking trails, the world’s tallest climbing wall, and a rooftop view to match its ambition.

👏 Praised for its bold design and sustainability goals, it’s a striking example of “hedonistic sustainability.”
🤔 But it’s not without critique. The plant was built with more capacity than Copenhagen needs, so to keep it running, waste is imported from countries like the UK and Germany. Some argue this undercuts its green promise. Others question whether the ski slope is more symbol than substance.

Love it or not, CopenHill challenges how we think about form, function, and fun in architecture. 🌱⛷️♻️

Would you ski on a power plant?

Köttbullar 🇸🇪 Sweden’s iconic meatballs in all their glory!Juicy, pan-fried and bathed in creamy gravy, these little fla...
18/07/2025

Köttbullar 🇸🇪 Sweden’s iconic meatballs in all their glory!

Juicy, pan-fried and bathed in creamy gravy, these little flavor-packed bites are a true classic. Served with sweet lingonberry jam and crisp pickled cucumbers, they strike the perfect balance between savory, sweet and tangy.

A dish rooted in tradition and loved around the world for its simple magic.

Beneath the streets of Tashkent runs one of the most extraordinary metro systems on the planet. Opened in the late 1970s...
20/04/2025

Beneath the streets of Tashkent runs one of the most extraordinary metro systems on the planet. Opened in the late 1970s during the Soviet era, the Tashkent Metro wasn’t just infrastructure. It was ideology in motion. A triumph of state power and aesthetics, every station was imagined as a palace for the people, filled with marble, chandeliers, mosaics and a utopian belief in science, industry and the stars.
Unlike the grand and often overwhelming scale of the Moscow Metro, the stations in Tashkent are more intimate and grounded. They are smaller, closer to the human scale, yet each one bursts with personality and charm. There is something deeply relatable about them. They feel made for people not for spectacle. Every detail invites you to pause, to look, to feel part of something larger without being swallowed by it.
Each stop is a stage set. Some celebrate Uzbek heritage with intricate folk patterns carved into stone. Others channel Soviet ambition with geometric forms and murals of workers, scientists and cosmic visionaries. Space is everywhere. Not just the kind you pass through but the kind you dream of reaching. These stations are quiet monuments to the stars built when the USSR still believed the future was something you could build.
Cosmonauts is the one that gets me every time. It is not just beautiful. It feels transcendent. The walls glow with portraits of Soviet and Uzbek space explorers surrounded by constellations and deep celestial blues. They do not just commemorate history. They invite you into it. The glass-covered columns shimmer with movement reflecting the arrival and departure of trains like liquid mirrors. The entire station breathes with light and rhythm like a spacecraft waiting to launch.
This is what happens when architecture dreams out loud. Even underground you can still feel the gravity of the stars.

Uzbekistan Pilaf was born at the crossroads of the Silk Road. This golden dish brings together fluffy rice, tender lamb ...
17/04/2025

Uzbekistan Pilaf was born at the crossroads of the Silk Road. This golden dish brings together fluffy rice, tender lamb slow-cooked for two hours, sweet carrots, onions, quail eggs, and a bold mix of spices, raisins, chickpeas and garlic. Traditionally made in a giant cauldron, it’s the star of every feast in Uzbekistan.

We decided to go from Tashkent/Uzbekistan to Khujand/Tajikistan by car, thinking it’d be a peaceful countryside ride.The...
17/04/2025

We decided to go from Tashkent/Uzbekistan to Khujand/Tajikistan by car, thinking it’d be a peaceful countryside ride.
Then came the Oybek border crossing — about a mile of muddy footpath, weaving through a line of trucks longer than a Central Asian proverb. It felt like we’d joined a slow-motion parade to somewhere very strange.
And strange it was.
Because once you enter Tajikistan, things bloom in full technicolor.
Tulips brighter than democracy.
Gardens manicured to perfection.
And the gardener? Oh, he now runs the country.
Yes, that gardener. The one who used to trim hedges and now trims freedom with the same precision.
It’s like the Wizard of Oz set up shop in Central Asia, took over the historic Arbob Palace — where Tajikistan’s declaration of independence was once signed — gave it a fresh coat of power, and declared himself the eternal ruler of all things floral.
But Khujand has many layers.
The Soviet fantasy of Arbob Palace.
The ancient power of the Citadel.
And the buzzing, chaotic charm of the Khujand Bazaar, where you can buy everything from a sheep’s head to a Samsung charger.
And through it all, the people.
Kind, generous, absurdly welcoming.
They offer tea, bread, smiles, and warmth, even as they live inside a political fairy tale with too much glitter and not enough plot.

Step into the Emir’s Summer Palace in Bukhara and you’ll feel like you’ve walked into a dream where East meets West in t...
16/04/2025

Step into the Emir’s Summer Palace in Bukhara and you’ll feel like you’ve walked into a dream where East meets West in the most unexpected way.
This palace blends Baroque exuberance with Asian Islamic grace. Instead of grand European proportions, it favors more intimate spaces, inviting and personal. Luxury here isn’t about showing off. It’s about comfort, softness, and quiet splendor. Still, every corner is rich with detail: mirrored ceilings, pastel walls in blush, mint, and sky blue, golden accents, and intricate floral motifs that echo both French salons and Persian gardens.
It’s a place of refined delight, a silk road symphony of style.

One of the most extraordinary surviving monuments of Islamic architecture in Central Asia, the Kalon Minaret in Bukhara ...
15/04/2025

One of the most extraordinary surviving monuments of Islamic architecture in Central Asia, the Kalon Minaret in Bukhara is a masterpiece of both form and resilience.
Designed by the architect Bako in 1127, this structure rises to 47 meters, comparable to a 15-story modern building. It achieves a remarkable lightness and rhythm through intricately patterned brickwork. There is no tile, no paint, only carefully baked bricks arranged in geometric designs with astonishing precision.
Its survival is just as compelling as its design. When Genghis Khan invaded Bukhara in 1220, most of the city was destroyed. The Kalon Minaret, however, was spared. According to legend, its architectural presence moved the conqueror so deeply that he left it standing.
Today, it remains a symbol of architectural brilliance and cultural endurance, a tower that has outlasted empires and continues to command awe.

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