Past Exhibitions 2016
30.11 — 05.02.2017
EYES WIDE OPEN! 100 ANOS DE FOTOGRAFIA LEICA
Focusing on the Leica collection and the company’s history (and its presence in Portugal), Eyes Wide Open, 100 years of Leica photography offers a significant range of images, from the early 20th century, to the present day. The Leica camera (the name derives from a contraction of the words “Leitz” and “Camera”) is a canonical, fetishistic object embedded in our collective imagination. It has been the mainstay of many of the most significant careers in professional photography – including photojournalism and documentary photography – and the arts in general. This exhibition offers the opportunity to discover many iconic images that constitute a true historic profile of 100 years of western visual culture.
The exhibition, organized by Porto City Council and curated by Hans-Michael Koetzle, highlights key aspects of photographic theory and practice. The issues covered range from technological and aesthetic developments to ethical and deontological concerns, including new forms of creative expressions by artists.
Structured across thirteen sections, including one dedicated to Portugal, the exhibition explores how the 35mm film format has transformed the photographic gaze in the context of the history of art and culture, the impact of smaller-sized cameras on the creative work of amateurs, artists and photojournalists and, above all, how visual language has changed over recent decades and how this has modified our perception of the world.
The exhibition, organized by Porto City Council and curated by Hans-Michael Koetzle, highlights key aspects of photographic theory and practice. The issues covered range from technological and aesthetic developments to ethical and deontological concerns, including new forms of creative expressions by artists.
Structured across thirteen sections, including one dedicated to Portugal, the exhibition explores how the 35mm film format has transformed the photographic gaze in the context of the history of art and culture, the impact of smaller-sized cameras on the creative work of amateurs, artists and photojournalists and, above all, how visual language has changed over recent decades and how this has modified our perception of the world.
02.09 — 13.11.2016
100 TESOUROS DA BIBLIOTECA PÚBLICA MUNICIPAL DO PORTO
The third exhibition from 2016’s season, which takes place simultaneously with Porto Books Fair, presents 100 Tesouros da Biblioteca Pública Municipal do Porto. This exhibition, the brainchild of Paulo Cunha e Silva and dedicated to his memory, showcases 100 Treasures from the Porto Municipal Public Library, a fascinating place emanating culture and liberty that has always influenced the character of Porto and of its inhabitants.
Curated by Fernando Pinto do Amaral and arranged into 12 thematic and chronological focal points, the exhibition features dozens of printed books to visitors, including some incunabula from the 15th century, beautiful medieval codices, numerous maps, lithographs and many other absolutely unforgettable works such as a Visigoth document dating back to the time before Portugal was founded and which is over one thousand years old, and also includes two magnificent editions of Os Lusíadas, the Foral da Cidade do Porto (Porto City Charter), the first treatise on Portuguese architecture, the Anatomia de Vesálio (Anatomy of Vesalius), the Roteiro da Primeira Viagem de Vasco da Gama à Índia (The Route of Vasco da Gama’s First Voyage to India), various autograph manuscripts of Almeida Garrett, Alexandre Herculano, Camilo Castelo Branco, Maria Browne, Júlio Dinis, Antero, António Nobre, Pascoaes, Pessoa, Régio, Eugénio de Andrade, Agustina Bessa-Luís and many others.
Curated by Fernando Pinto do Amaral and arranged into 12 thematic and chronological focal points, the exhibition features dozens of printed books to visitors, including some incunabula from the 15th century, beautiful medieval codices, numerous maps, lithographs and many other absolutely unforgettable works such as a Visigoth document dating back to the time before Portugal was founded and which is over one thousand years old, and also includes two magnificent editions of Os Lusíadas, the Foral da Cidade do Porto (Porto City Charter), the first treatise on Portuguese architecture, the Anatomia de Vesálio (Anatomy of Vesalius), the Roteiro da Primeira Viagem de Vasco da Gama à Índia (The Route of Vasco da Gama’s First Voyage to India), various autograph manuscripts of Almeida Garrett, Alexandre Herculano, Camilo Castelo Branco, Maria Browne, Júlio Dinis, Antero, António Nobre, Pascoaes, Pessoa, Régio, Eugénio de Andrade, Agustina Bessa-Luís and many others.
30.06 — 21.08.2016
PIGS
The PIGS project features work by artists from Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain and aims to reflect a political landscape permeated by cynicism that stems from the paternalistic discourse – loaded with clichés and a sense os superiority – of northern European countries regarding the countries in the south. It presents interconnected narratives in which the selected artists take a critical look at notions such as democracy, institucional ethics, control strategies that dominate the collective subjectivity. Through these artists’ works, it offers other possibilities, other visions, another viewpoint for overturning the established order.
The acronym used as the title provides a pretext for taking a snapshot of what is happening and for bringing to light some of the interrelated accounts that offer us the diversity of layers hidden behind the crisis and the current circumstances.
PIGS speaks ironically and subversively of the socio-political implications of the crisis and its cultural roots, of an accoubnt within Europe that is full of paradoxes, of a fractured pan-European idea, and what the false construction of this idea means for the four countries in question.
The acronym used as the title provides a pretext for taking a snapshot of what is happening and for bringing to light some of the interrelated accounts that offer us the diversity of layers hidden behind the crisis and the current circumstances.
PIGS speaks ironically and subversively of the socio-political implications of the crisis and its cultural roots, of an accoubnt within Europe that is full of paradoxes, of a fractured pan-European idea, and what the false construction of this idea means for the four countries in question.
12.03 — 22.05.2016
P. - UMA HOMENAGEM A PAULO CUNHA E SILVA, POR EXTENSO
The exhibition dedicated to the Councilman of Culture at the Porto City Hall focuses on his visual discourse along two strands: the documental, in which homage is paid to the dazzling path carved out by this cultural agitator, and the complementary artistic propositions put forward by those who accompanied him in his interpellations to the aesthetic as an essential vehicle for an enlightened grasp of reality.
“(...) Paying homage to Paulo Cunha e Silva through an exhibition requires coherence and complexity. It stems from our sadness over his passing, our saudade (longing), but also the need to give him his due, and our pride at doing so. Although he is gone, we still cherish that smile, which never left him. What remains are his ideas, which still hover in the air. These ranged from the profound to the skin-deep, although the latter often proved to be the most important of all – as he used to say, skin is a vital and deepest of organs. So this occasion, for Paulo Cunha e Silva and for Porto itself, must not be seen as an end-point; rather, it is a point of departure for something that is greater and, by its very nature , defies description – the work of a figure who will never leave the city, as the city will never leave him. For this man, the horizon was merely the things that he had yet to do.”
Rui Moreira
Mayor of Porto
“(...) Paying homage to Paulo Cunha e Silva through an exhibition requires coherence and complexity. It stems from our sadness over his passing, our saudade (longing), but also the need to give him his due, and our pride at doing so. Although he is gone, we still cherish that smile, which never left him. What remains are his ideas, which still hover in the air. These ranged from the profound to the skin-deep, although the latter often proved to be the most important of all – as he used to say, skin is a vital and deepest of organs. So this occasion, for Paulo Cunha e Silva and for Porto itself, must not be seen as an end-point; rather, it is a point of departure for something that is greater and, by its very nature , defies description – the work of a figure who will never leave the city, as the city will never leave him. For this man, the horizon was merely the things that he had yet to do.”
Rui Moreira
Mayor of Porto