Contadores de Histórias (Storytelling Meters) was the first exhibition to bring together various archival pieces—visual objects, instruments, and devices—from the EDP Foundation's Energy Heritage Collection. Originating from the Latin root computator, the Portuguese word “contador” refers both to a measuring device and to someone who tells a story. The curatorial strategy proposed for telling the story of electricity involved a kind of role reversal, using counters as narrators, as instruments that tell stories. The invention of the electricity meter turned energy into a commodity, and its subsequent iterations reveal different facets of this story: from tariff billing to the manufacture of electrical appliances, from public lighting to electric mobility, from grid management to fraud prevention, from mechanical to electronic measurement systems.

The visual identity took as its reference circuits and electrical diagrams which, like the exhibition itself, were divided into 10 episodes, engaging the audience in their stories. Scattered throughout the historic building that supplied the city of Lisbon, these 10 episodes were connected in space by fuchsia-colored lines. The brochure accompanying the exhibition alluded to the display device consisting of metal plates and electric mats with a golden finish, becoming an extension of the exhibition.

Curator: Joaquim Moreno

Exhibition design: Pedrita + Furo

Exhibition photos: Daniel Malhão

Exhibition developed with the support of the EDP Foundation Energy Heritage and Documentation Centre's team.