Past Exhibitions 2021
11.12.2021 – 20.02.2022
ERRO 417: EXPECTATIVA FALHADA
Propelled by the capitalist economic system, which has a pervasive influence over all other social and cultural systems, the fear of failure is simultaneous to the desire for success. In this context, such dread of failing or of falling short of expectations has become one of humanity’s greatest impulses and the value of judgment we use to evaluate ourselves, serving as a measure that establishes social hierarchies. But the concepts of failure and success are never free from prerogatives: the idea of success is intrinsically linked to several structural factors—such as skin colour, gender, sexuality, etc.—and, above all, to fulfilling expected roles within these categories.
Failure, and learning from failure, plays an increasingly important role in artistic production. Between dissatisfaction, rejection, doubt, error, and experience, the idea of successively trying and failing can fuel speculative experimentation and conceptual creation. Assuming the premise of failure as a tool of counter-hegemonic resistance, this exhibition calls for a critique of static models of success and failure and questions their role in the construction of personal and everyday life. Yet, above all, expectation is not welcome here as we give way to failure and error, which inevitably generate the experience of being alive.
11.12.2021 – 20.02.2022
A HORA ANTES DO PÔR DO SOL
MILENA BONILLA
“The hour before sunset has a magic all its own...” Rosa Luxemburg wrote to her friend, Hans Diefenbach, in a letter sent from Wronke prison in the summer of 1917. Based on this correspondence, Milena Bonilla invites us to think about the possibilities of building an imaginary universe that navigates between literature, botany, sporadic historical references and collective mythologies. Here, “the golden hour before sunset” is a conception of a magical temporal moment that links the past and present through the creation of political and emotional resonances.
This exhibition is a further development in Milena Bonilla 's wider research, which explores the limits of the archive and the interpretation of history as a way of articulating a possible collective memory. The project infiltrates the symbolic spaces created within Rosa Luxemburg's thinking and also creates interstitial spaces that link together different forms of knowledge production in order to explore what we could call suspended historical temporality.
Revisiting exhibitions
The Oracle, by Diana Policarpo
Part of the exhibition “Nets of Hyphae” by Diana Policarpo, the artist presents the video entitled “The Oracle”. The piece provides a historical contextualization of ergot, from Greek mythology to the Middle Ages, highlighting the pioneering knowledge and practices of midwives, healers, and peasants, in traditional medicine, pharmacology and obstetrics. Through this work, the artist also draws connections between women’s struggles for reproductive justice, from the Salem witch trials to abortion rights today.
“Claviceps purpurea, also known as ergot, is a parasitic fungus that infects grains and grasses, especially rye, destroying the ovaries of plants. ‘When I discovered that it attacked the reproductive system of plants, I immediately established a parallel with the human body and the reproductive health of women’, explains Diana Policarpo. This fungus has hallucinogenic and medicinal properties, having been used over several decades by healers and midwives, to perform abortions and help women in the pre and postpartum period. It was even one of the plants used for abortive purposes by enslaved women (raped by enslavers and colonizers) who did not want to give birth to future slaves.” — in Jornal Público, January 12, in an interview by the journalist Mariana Duarte.
The exhibition “Nets of Hyphae” was presented at GMP netween 2020 and 2021 and was curated by Stefanie Hessler and coproduced by Kunsthall Trondheim.
Revisiting Public programmes
Public programme of THE HOUR BEFORE SUNSET
The public programme of the exhibition "The Hour Before Sunset" by Milena Bonilla, curated by Juan Luis Toboso, took place on the weekend of February 5th and was attended by the artist for a guided tour of the exhibition and also for the projection of the film "I am Life and Life is Beautiful", part of the exhibition project. The screening was followed by a talk between Bonilla and Filipa Ramos.
Studio visits 👁
Dayana Lucas
Dayana Lucas, in residence at Ateliers Municipais, was the first artist we visited in an encounter that led us to talk about her current work, which crosses drawing, sculpture, performance and graphic design. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Dayana Lucas has lived in Porto for several years, where she recently launched Orinoco, an editorial project dedicated to the publication of artist's books, each with its own identity and format.
Artist Uriel Orlow, who has been developing the workshop "Assembly of Plants" with ping!, also joined the visit.
www.dayanalucas.com
www.urielorlow.net
Revisiting the Learnning programme
An analysis of the Colonial Exhibitions, by Bambi Ceuppens
In May of this year, we received the anthropologist and curator Bambi Ceuppens for a conference that focused on the analysis of the Colonial Exhibitions in Porto, in 1934, and in Brussels, in 1958, focusing on the issue of human zoos and on the ethical implications of these events in contemporaneity.
The moment, presented in the auditorium of Biblioteca Municipald Almeida Garret, was part of the axis "Um Elefante no Palácio de Cristal", curated by Alexandra Balona, Melissa Rodrigues and Nuno Coelho with InterStruct Collective. Part of ping! – Programa de Incursão à Galeria.
Studio visits 👁
Pedro Moreira
We visited Sarau Studio where Pedro Moreira works, whose artistic practice explores questions of identity. Combining theology, mythology and esotericism, Pedro Moreira creates imaginary forms and beings that organically emerge from their videos, installations, performances and ceramic sculptures.
www.pedmoreira.com
www.pedmoreira.com
Studio visits 👁
Svenja Tiger
Today we headed to Bonfin to visit the studio of Svenja Tiger, who took part in the last edition of the Anuário project.
Trained in costume design and fine arts, Tiger conceives of textiles as a form of painting in which she celebrates the multiplicity of bodies, shaping their possible mutations.
Influenced by fables and folk tales, mythologies and fictions, the artist crosses the real and folklore, the human, animal and natural in artworks in which the body is both vehicle, adornment and movement.
www.svenjatiger.com
Revisiting Public programmes
Erro 417: Talks, walks and performances
The public programme of the exhibition “Erro 417: Expectativa Falhada” was presented in two moments, bringing together a set of activities composed of talks, walks and performances.
The first moment included the poet and indigenous researcher Ellen Lima, who proposed a walk through the gardens of Palácio de Cristal. Later, Lima joined in a talk with Coletivo FACA and Marta Espiridião, curator of the exhibition project. On the same day, the performance "Estomacus", by the duo Trypas Corassão, was also presented in the exhibition space.
In the second part of the programme, there was a talk entitled "Error 406: Not Acceptable" with the participation of Hilda de Paulo, Luan Okun and Marta Espiridião. Okun also presented the performance "O jeito que o corpo dá", which had the collaboration of Joni Ricos and video projection by Yuna Turva.
GMP Editions
Galeria Municipal do Porto launches the book “Masks”
In 2020 Galeria Municipal do Porto hosted the exhibition "Máscaras (Masks)". The publication, co-edited with Mousse Publishing, is now available for purchase.
The exhibition project, which was curated by João Laia and Valentinas Klimašauskas, focused on the role of masks throughout history, materialized in the works of twenty-one artists. An artifact present in society since ancient times, the mask took the most varied forms and roles: from caricature to camouflage, from imitation to social makeup, going through the online and offline world. In the words of the curators, the mask brought together “completely different people in time and space”.
Thought even before the pandemic, the exhibition was presented when masks became mandatory at the entrance of museums. Two years later, these objects are still present in everyday life, giving the publication a pressing and current symbology. The editorial project, also undertaken by the two curators, had contributions from Guilherme Blanc, Grada Kilomba, Zack Blas and the collective Omsk Social Club. More than a catalogue, “Masks” is an extension of the exhibition project in book format, prolonging its reflections through unpublished and complementary textual contributions to the exhibition.
Revisiting exhibitions
Luchona, by Gabriel Chaile
As part of the group exhibition "Feet of Clay" curated by Chus Martínez and Filipa Ramos, in 2021 at GMP, Gabriel Chaile presented a sculpture entitled "Luchona".
"My work is linked to an anthropological predisposition of understanding our own things. I always took myself as an object of study on a visual level and a lot of things appeared from there. I always took what was closest to me first, and that was working-class life. I saw those images, I saw my mother baking bread all her life in a clay oven and my father, a bricklayer, arriving late, not sleeping, not resting much, working a lot. All situations that I approach formally and visually, are a way to talk about what doesn’t happen in the mainstream of society and which is there, it
has to do with life in places that are not visible." Gabriel Chaile
In Latin America, luchona [fighter] is a derogatory name given to young single mothers who are considered to be immature and irresponsible for partying hard while raising their children. Gabriel Chaile’s monumental Luchona pays tribute to these women by revealing their resourceful and loving nature.
Studio visits 👁
Paula Pinto
We visited the studio of the curator Paula Parente Pinto, co-curator of the exhibition "Que Horas são Que Horas / Uma Galeria de Histórias" which took place at Galeria Municipal do Porto in 2021. Her transdisciplinary research focuses on historical research and the recovery and activation of archives.
During our visit, Paula Parente Pinto showed us the work she is developing around the performance collection of art critic Egídio Álvaro. The various materials that make up the collection, originally archived in Paris, were brought to Porto by the curator, and are now being researched, restored and catalogued. They will soon be shared through a programme of activities at the RAMPA space, a project developed thanks to a Criatório 2021 support grant.
Revisiting Public programmes
"Statues of Tehran", by Bahman Kiarostami
Part of the public programme of the exhibition "Desertado. Algo que aconteceu pode acontecer novamente", the documentary "Statues of Tehran" was presented, signed by the director Bahman Kiarostami.
The filmic work questions the function of monuments in today’s Tehran, a postmodern and ideologically overburdened mega-metropolis, afflicted by oblivion. The piece retraces the fate of two important public sculptures: the first, a pioneering work commissioned by the royal family in the 1970s by the then most prominent sculptor of modernity, Bahman Mohassess; the second, a tribute to the Islamic Revolution installed in Revolution Square, by Iraj Eskandari. Under the aegis of the Revolution, the former was condemned first to neglect and finally to be stored, while the latter became a reference piece among the profusion of public projects celebrating the Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War.
Studio visits 👁
Samuel Wenceslau
"A stain is also beauty", teach us Samuel Wenceslau. Artist originally from Nova Lima (Brazil) and currently living in Porto, Samuel welcomed us in his studio-garden-home that houses plants and images of plants, archives and scenography, memory and discovery, affections and research.
During our Study visit, we talked about his relationship with botany and discovered the affective-formal nomenclatures he has been creating through graphic representations of plants and mosses. In his project "Studiolo Gráfico / Inventário Gráfico de Formas Naturais", Samuel brings together elements from the landscape of Minas Gerais and Northern Portugal.
Besides being a visual artist, Samuel is also the "Queen of Scrap", collecting abandoned objects in the streets, and is part of the Kebraku collective.
GMP Editions
Galeria Municipal launches the publication “To School Out of School”
“To School Out of School” results from the homonymous contemporary art reflection course, integrated in the second edition of the municipal programme entitled Colectivos Pláka.
“To School Out of School” was coordinated by Ana Rocha, producer, curator, choreographer and performer, and André Sousa, artist and co-founder of the artistic project "A Certain Lack of Coherence", tooking place in three moments between the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019. The course brought together national and international artists and thinkers in the creation of a temporary workshop on contemporary studies focusing on collectives, solo actions, informal or institutional structures that develop their projects in the area of curatorship and reflecion about Culture nowadays.
The publication, co-edited by Ana Rocha and André Sousa, brings together contributions from the curators, critics and artists who participated in the course: Adrian Heathfield, Benjamin Seroussi, Catarina Saraiva, Fadwa Naamna, Irit Rogoff, Markus Miessen, Olivier Marbeout, Pedro G. Romero and Stephan Dillemuth, along with drawings by Mauro Cerqueira, and introduction by Guilherme Blanc, Artistic Director of Batalha Centro de Cinema, who curated the initiative and the editorial project.
Promoted within the scope of the Pláka platform, the Colectivos Pláka programme brings together reflection and thought production groups on contemporary art and artistic practice, with the central focus of enhancing opportunities for thinking, learning and knowledge sharing between artists and cultural agents residing in Porto.
Purchases can be made through this website or at the Galeria Municipal do Porto counter.
Studio visits 👁
Alisa Heil
We visited "Tiresias Und Der Kleine Tod", Alisa Heil's exhibition/installation at Espaço Mira. Based on the Greek mythology of Tiresias, a blind prophet of Apollo in Thebes, who was for seven years turned into a woman, Heil created an immersive and sensorial environment, where material elements and lighting, sound and olfactory compositions surround us, transforming our perceptual experience. The visit was made together with curator Fernanda Brenner, artistic director of Pivô Arte e Pesquisa in São Paulo.
Born in Germany, Alisa Heil lives in Porto, occasionally working under the pseudonym Abraham Winterstein, a combination of the maiden names of her two grandmothers. Heil focuses on the feminine representation of mythology and popular culture, reflecting it in the present through the sensoriality of materials. She has programmed, since 2017, the independent art space Kunsthalle Freeport, at Stop Shopping Centre, in Porto.
www.alisaheil.net
18.09 – 21.11.2021
THE NEW BABYLONIANS
Crossing the border
PEDRO G. ROMERO
The concept of ‘New babylonians’ was developed by Guy Debord, Constant Nieuwenhuys, Har Oudejans and Pinot‑Gallizio on the basis of Constant Nieuwenhuys’ situationist project, New Babylon, and is related to some of the fundamental ideas that underpinned this movement, such as psychogeography, wandering and unitary urbanism. Inspired by these concepts, the artist and curator, Pedro G. Romero, proposes an exercise to the Galeria Municipal do Porto that aims to question our perception of different nomadic groups, gypsy ethnicity, flamencos, political exiles and libertarians.
The exhibition offers an analysis of the sensitive field of these different approaches to life with a special focus on their displacement across the physical and political borders of Spain and Portugal, including several resonances of their relationship with the Atlantic territories of America and Africa. The city of Porto acts as the starting geography for an enquiry into the paths, flows and wanderings of these ‘new Babylonians’, from the Portuguese context and its trans-border zones.
With the support of
With the support of
18.09 – 21.11.2021
PANDEMIC
I Don’t Know Karate, but I Know Ka-Razor!
FILIPE MARQUES
PANDEMIC – I Don’t Know Karate But I Know Ka-razor takes us to a ground zero state to confront issues such as the fragility and finitude of bodies, the disease-sanity binomial and the struggles rooted in the world and in nature. This exhibition, which results from an invitation made by the Galeria Municipal do Porto to the artist in 2019, to question viral concepts that permeate his work, acquires an evident relevance in the context of today’s current global pandemic crisis.
The exhibition project reflects the poetic and apocalyptic complexity imprinted in Filipe Marques’ language, through which the spectators are led to a potential realization of the impotence of the human condition, our impossibility of controlling invisible contaminations and balancing forces and resistances.
Based on concepts from Modern Philosophy and texts from the Classical Antiquity, we are challenged to understand the constant contradictions of humanity. Through stimuli, signs and metaphors about failure and self-destruction, which the artist in his frailty does not want to escape, arises an invitation to participate in a speculative exercise unfolding in a contemporary reflection that becomes urgent, collective and political.
22/05 – 18/07/2021
SATELLITE PROJECT: ANUÁRIO 20
Anuário is an exhibition and, simultaneously, a project of reflective analysis of curatorial and artistic practices in Porto during a one year period. This project – included in the platform Pláka, which encompasses the city council’s policies in support of contemporary art – was created by João Ribas and Guilherme Blanc and is annually developed by a group of five curators who they invite to monitor, document and analyse artistic projects presented in public spaces in the city. This is an exhibition that results from a continuous reflection on artistic production and a shared curatorial process, in which the five curators’ perspectives converge into a common understanding of the art practice in Porto over the last year.
Opening hours:
Wednesday - Friday
14h00 - 19h00
Saturday - Sunday
11h00 - 19h00
Locations:
A Sede (Rua São Roque da Lameira 1435, Porto)
AL859 (Rua da Alegria 859, Porto)
Armazém do Fundo (Largo de Mompilher 5, Porto)
Atelier Logicofobista (Rua Anselmo Braancamp 345, Porto)
Clube de Desenho (Rua da Alegria 970, Porto)
Espaço Birra (Rua de Ferreira Cardoso 49, Porto)
Ócio (Rua do Duque da Terceira 370, Porto)
Opening hours:
Wednesday - Friday
14h00 - 19h00
Saturday - Sunday
11h00 - 19h00
12.06 – 22.08.2021
WALL גדר جدار
INÉS MOLDAVSKY
Wall גדר جدار is the result of an invitation made to the Argentinian-Israeli artist Inés Moldavsky to revisit and expand, in an installation context, her film The Men Behind the Wall, Golden Bear winner at the Berlinale – Berlin International Film Festival – in 2018. In this filmic work a dating app is used to create a set of conversations and personal meetings with Palestinian men living in the Gaza strip and the West Bank.
The digital gateway is utilized as a starting point to visit the two territories, in journeys where the tension becomes evident through the visual and sonic landscape and, also, by virtue of the linguistic expression. In the project developed for the Galeria Municipal do Porto, the artist further explores her proposal of crossing borders – digital, political, religious and of gender – by building a frank and, therefore, provocative exercise of conversational intimacy and analysis.
The specific context of affective and sexual interactions in the digital age continues to serve as a subtle backdrop to analyse questions of segregation, while proposing to discuss power relations through various stereotypes.
In a particularly tense period between the states of Israel and Palestine, Wall גדר جدار attests to the validity of the continuing need for political debate about the question of Israeli occupation, while simultaneously proposing a meta-political reading of issues of love, respect and equality.
12.06 – 22.08.2021
PÉS DE BARRO
Some may associate clay, pottery and ceramics to tradition, and tradition to the past. Some may associate technology, digital communication and data with the new, and the new with the future. What if the future is only a technology as old and unusual as clay? What if clay is a matter that renews itself constantly and gives time its unpredictable configurations?
What if clay is the future and the future is clay? And if the feet of clay only reveal a vulnerability because the rest of the body is made of a different material? And if the feet of clay are actually rooting people to the earth, connecting them through the same matter? And if feet of clay are a way to establish a post-technological communication that requires no webs, no networks, no cables; only our many, one, two, eight, twenty feet and some clay?
These are some of the inquiries and riddles put forward by the curators Chus Martínez (curator, art historian, writer and director of the Art Institute of the FHN W Academy of Art and Design Basel) and Filipa Ramos (writer and Art Basel Film curator and co‑curator of the last edition of Fórum do Futuro) so as to bring together a group of artists who have been using clay, pottery and ceramics to imagine, project and shape the world they live in.
What if clay is the future and the future is clay? And if the feet of clay only reveal a vulnerability because the rest of the body is made of a different material? And if the feet of clay are actually rooting people to the earth, connecting them through the same matter? And if feet of clay are a way to establish a post-technological communication that requires no webs, no networks, no cables; only our many, one, two, eight, twenty feet and some clay?
These are some of the inquiries and riddles put forward by the curators Chus Martínez (curator, art historian, writer and director of the Art Institute of the FHN W Academy of Art and Design Basel) and Filipa Ramos (writer and Art Basel Film curator and co‑curator of the last edition of Fórum do Futuro) so as to bring together a group of artists who have been using clay, pottery and ceramics to imagine, project and shape the world they live in.