Francisco Tropa</a> to have ever been staged within a Portuguese institution. Known for his complex body of work, which combines in surprising ways a broad range of mediums (sculpture, drawing, performance, etching, photography and film) and references (among which are figures from ancient and modern times, the arts, science and literature), the artist over the last thirty years has built his own world prone to musings stoked by different traditions of sculpture, literature and mythology. These considerations are frequently founded on metaphysical questions, or anthropological and philosophical themes, more precisely on nature, the origin and final purpose of art, and the creative act.&nbsp;</p><p>The exhibition does not claim to be any kind of retrospective, despite being assembled based on projects the artist completed in each decade of his career, understood to be key moments in his practice: the “prototypes” that were produced mostly in the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, presented on the mezzanine floor of Serralves Library, A Assembleia de Euclides / The Assembly of Euclid, which occupied him for much of the 2000s and O Enigma de RM/The RM Enigma, his most recent work. The exhibition should be seen as a kind of great “machine ”, in which along its course the visitor is systematically confronted with some of the artist’s fundamental concerns, namely the way artworks are legitimised, perceived, analysed and shared (should they be subject to a “reading”? Should we judge them on what supposedly makes them topical, the appearance of contemporaneity?). The repetition of form, the reappearance of elements, the recurrence of specific references (to the history of art – ancient, modern and contemporary –, to antiquity, and mythology) asks us to question our own notions of originality and creativity. Francisco Tropa has embraced the recourse to repetition, and the reutilisation of elements from past works, rather than seek the new. The artist is more interested in continuing to add to an object, a motif or point of reference with which he consistently works – “I only come up with something new if I can’t make use of something I’ve already worked with; repeating objects in different situations only serves to enrich them” – and in exploring associations triggered by how we were exposed to them in the past. At the same time, the profusion of references ensures each piece is polyphonic saying a variety of different things simultaneously. Intentionally paradoxical, this multiplicity of possible interpretations – this “controlled noise”, as Tropa calls it – at some point results in an infinite capacity for “readings” of the work, its interpretation founded on more or less endless, explicit, erudite citations it inventorises and/or summons. The point being: make it so that all the viewer can do is “simply” look.</p><p><br></p>" itemprop="description" />

Kazuyo Sejima</a> and <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Organization/Serralves-Museum-of-Contemporary-Art/"/Artist/Ryue-Nishizawa/5E660C3384630327">Ryue Nishizawa</a>, whose 30 year-long partnership is celebrated through this exhibition.</p><p>Constantly thinking about architecture in its environment, SANAA’s typological studies become means of learning, a slow incremental process by which the work connects to those inhabiting their designs. The study is the underlying framework holding together two projects operating in physical proximity but very different political and cultural landscapes.</p><p>The Inujima project is a long-term engagement with a typical landscape of post-industrial Japan. The island was formerly home to more than 4,000 people at the start of the 20th century but suffered severe depopulation after the closure of local quarries – only about 30 households remain today. From its inception in 2008, the Inujima Project is an ongoing collaboration of Kazuyo Sejima with curator Yuko Hasegawa and the Fukutake Foundation – that views the island as a place of care, aiming to sustain it as a living entity by weaving art and cultural activities into the fabric of everyday life, fostering a convivial and sustainable community ecosystem. This exhibition brings together contributions by Kazuyo Sejima, Ryue Nishizawa and others who work together to nurture and sustain Inujima as a hospitable living landscape.</p><p>The Imabari project is an office building designed for the Imabari Shipbuilding Corporation at a shipyard near the Inujima Island. The conception of this softer and more open work environment – part of an effort to attract workers to the shipyard – enables a closer relationship between workers across the building. Presented in its morphological development across several studies and iterations, the interest in overlapping connections across the building emerges gradually over a two-year period. Imabari’s multiple cell-like evolutions are featured in a landscape of small pedestals designed by SANAA, alongside pieces of furniture designed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p>" itemprop="description" />

Soares dos Reis National Museum, and managing his own gallery project: Módulo — Centro Difusor de Arte. Despite the obvious overlapping of various areas of interest in the field of contemporary art, Mário Teixeira da Silva always succeeded in separating his roles as a gallerist and collector, and acquired works that wouldn’t necessarily be included in his programme for Módulo.</p><p>Módulo — Centro Difusor de Arte was inaugurated in May 1975, in the midst of <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Organization/Serralves-Museum-of-Contemporary-Art/"/Artist/Pedro-Portugal/F626CF44E476F590">Portugal’s post-revolutionary period. It positioned itself as a space where it would be possible to combine commercial activity with a programme of culture, education and sharing. The gallery’s goal was to create a community that was more enlightened and aware of contemporary trends in the art world, both in Portugal and abroad.</p><p>From Mário Teixeira da Silva’s perspective, a work of art should inspire the observer to reflect and research. Viewed in its most diverse aspects, this process would facilitate the construction of a comprehensive vision of the works and artists. In this context it can be assumed that the collector felt particularly close to the creative process of many of the artists represented in his collection. A paradigmatic case is Contemporary Song (1984), by <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Organization/Serralves-Museum-of-Contemporary-Art/"/Artist/Franz-Erhard-Walther/5246331E5B187355">Franz Erhard Walther</a> (1939, Fulda, Germany), after which this exhibition is named.</p><p>Franz Erhard Walther’s artistic practice has always favoured the processual nature of creating a work, treating it not as a simple object or image, but as an open system of interaction with the spectator, thereby activating all the senses that are manifested through time, space, language and action. In a 1993 interview with Alexandre Melo, he remarked: ‘Ever since I began making works in the 1960s, I’ve been asking the basic question of what a work of art is. The works I produced at the time primarily served as instruments; it was the process of using the works that made it possible for the actual work to emerge. The works were an invitation for active participation. It is the spectator who, by intervening, defines the work and he cannot be consigned to the position of a mere observer.’</p><p>This selection of works from the Mário Teixeira da Silva Collection, now on display in the galleries of the Álvaro Siza Wing, aims to reflect on the action developed over five decades by Mário Teixeira da Silva. Photography was his preferred medium, but the scope of his collection is clearly multidisciplinary, expanding in parallel with other media — including painting, sculpture, drawing and graphic work. Also noteworthy was his growing interest in other areas over recent decades, such as African tribal art and 19th-century painting and modernist painting.</p><p>The presence at the entrance to the exhibition of the sculpture Chantier II [Shipyard II] (1992) by the Belgian <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Organization/Serralves-Museum-of-Contemporary-Art/"/Artist/Wim-Delvoye/01F9E99248DD4952">artist Wim Delvoye</a> (1965, Wervik) poetically reminds us, through the image of a construction site, of the circumstances in which Mário Teixeira da Silva’s collection found itself in January 2023, when the collector passed away: an insatiable curiosity, a broadening of its chronological and geographical framework and constant refinement — both by filling in gaps and consolidating the structuring presences in his Collection.</p><p>The exhibition includes around 185 works by around 109 Portuguese and foreign artists: Contemporary Song can be compared to an open musical score, where the notation is set by the viewer’s gaze.</p><p>The exhibition is organised by Fundação Serralves – Museu de Arte Contemporânea and curated by Marta Moreira de <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Organization/Serralves-Museum-of-Contemporary-Art/"/Artist/Helena-Almeida/C0D0707B535AEAE1">Almeida, Deputy Director of the Museum.</p><p><br></p>" itemprop="description" />

Francis Alÿs</a> (born 1959, Antwerp, Belgium) has forged a unique and radical practice ranging from painting and drawing to film and animation. Trained as an architect and urbanist in Belgium and Italy, Alÿs became interested in the civic role of the urban environment. He moved to Mexico City in 1986 where the rapidly transforming city and the consequent changes to social dynamics in the late 1980s inspired him to become a visual artist.&nbsp;</p><p>Action is at the centre of Alÿs’s practice. He was the protagonist of most of his interventions in the 1990s, using his own body because it was immediately available. Children’s Games (1999–present) marks a clear shift: his agency was expanded and redistributed as children became the subjects. Taking its title from one of the earliest films in the series – Children’s Game #2: Ricochets (2007) – the exhibition emerges from the changing nature of participation in his practice, reflecting possibilities of collective consciousness and bodily agency.&nbsp;</p><p>Complementing the expansive universe of Children’s Games, the exhibition presents some animation works, building on Alÿs’s interest in play through a focused exploration of hand games. Play is integrated and encouraged in the galleries through dedicated playrooms.&nbsp;</p><p>The exhibition Ricochets is organized by Barbican, London with Fundação de <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Organization/Serralves-Museum-of-Contemporary-Art/"/Organization/Serralves-Museum-of-Contemporary-Art/1074E3E5A468968E">Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art</a>, Porto and is curated by Florence Ostende.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p>" itemprop="description" />

Álvaro Siza</a> Archive, which explored the Sizian macrocosm of the last ninety years, this display seeks to complement the understanding of that extensive body of work through the microcosm of his design objects.</p><p>Conceived in absolute symbiosis with the architectural space – similarly to the furniture showcased in parallel by SANAA: Sejima + Nishizawa –, these items represent different moments in time, from the Boa Nova Tea House to the Serralves Foundation’s New Wing, as well as their respective influences, from Shaker-style dressers to the chairs of Aalto, Wright or Mackintosh.&nbsp;</p><p>Despite working with international brands such as Hermès, Camerich, or Reggiani, Siza continues to produce mainly in Portugal and particularly with SPSS, having developed a friendship with José Simões which nurtured the successive reinvention of his carpentry and joinery details. This exhibition is a sort of tribute to an iterative design process that, throughout decades, contextualized other forays into sculpture, tapestry or tiling, with Viúva Lamego.</p><p>The formal and constructive evolution of the disegno (drawing / design) can also be understood by the transversal dialogue between the author, the clients and the artisans of wood, stone or metal, such as Pedro Simões, Augusto Sousa and João Martins, among others. Materiality, function and proportion produce diverse and cohesive atmospheres which rise to the level of art, delicate everyday architectures that, through their rigor, quality and imagination, define a simultaneously personal and universal whole, both intimate and collective.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p>" itemprop="description" />

Miró: Il était une petite pie (1928), Parler seul (1948-50), and Mà de Proverbis (1970). These books demonstrate the full range of Miró's development as a graphic artist, his close relationship with poets, and his lifelong interest in the word/image matrix in his painting and in his graphic work. Miró’s first book of 1928 illustrates children’s songs by Lise Hirtz, a poet and close associate of the French Surrealists. It is executed using the technique of pochoir (stencil printing) and includes 8 prints. The second book represents a collaboration between Miró and the Dada poet Tristan Tzara. It includes 72 lithographs in color and in black and white, a selection of which is presented in the exhibition, along with pages from the book’s maquette, which Miró executed in gouache. The third book represents a collaboration between Miró and the Japanese poet Shûzô Takiguchi, a key figure of the Japanese avant-gardes, who wrote the first monograph on the Catalan artist in 1940. It includes seven lithographs in black and white, and three lithographs printed in color for the cover and frontispiece of the book.</p><p>The three books by Miró are supplemented by paintings and works on paper from the Museu Serralves, the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona, and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid. Each book is presented with documents that chart Miró’s progress, his dialogues with the poets involved, and materials that are related to the commission and gestation of the projects.</p><p><br></p>" itemprop="description" />

Mário Soares</a> was an avid and tireless reader, an assiduous and prolific writer, a curious and fascinated art lover. His love for all forms of creation that seek to express our loftiest dreams and probe the deepest mysteries of our human condition made him a persistent collector of books, rare editions, manuscripts, autographs, dedications and letters. And also works of art: painting, drawing, sculpture, tapestry, photography and engraving.&nbsp;</p><p>In his various homes, he lived surrounded by art and culture. In his own personal and familiar world, what he wanted and enjoyed most was to immerse himself in the inspiring and all-encompassing company of art in all its forms. A cosmopolitan citizen of the world, whenever he travelled, no matter how short his stay, he unfailingly visited the local museums, art galleries, exhibitions, artists’ studios and bookshops.&nbsp;</p><p>In all the high state positions he held, he always stayed in touch with the cultural issues and events of the day, spending time with leading artists and cultural figures in Portugal and abroad, many of whom were or became his friends.&nbsp;</p><p>For him, this proximity served as a stimulus for his own activity, for his choices and decisions. That is why he once said: “Culture is the salt of democracy.”&nbsp;</p><p>This phrase has been chosen as the title for this exhibition, which shows the more private aspects (but also the fundamental public repercussions) of an individual life and the decisive influence that this has had on our own collective life and the construction of a new, European and democratic Portugal.&nbsp;</p><p>The exhibition The Salt of Democracy — Mário Soares and Culture marks the centenary of Mário Soares’ birth and offers us a glimpse of his friendship with writers and artists, many of whom were his companions in the struggle for freedom, and highlights his constant interest and concern for what they were doing. It illustrates his own activity as a writer and shows the most fundamental references of his political and cultural thought. It also reveals the solidity of Soares’ vast cultural knowledge, his careful concern for the preservation of memory, his forward-looking impulse and his open and curious mind, his enthusiastic interest in new things, his attention to diversity and difference, his active desire to know and discover more and to keep up to date, and his fervent need to be surprised by contemporary creation and new ideas.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p>" itemprop="description" />

Mounira Al Solh</a>’s artistic practice spans video, installations, painting, drawing, textiles, text, and performance. Her work delves into complex social and political landscapes, focusing on feminist themes, micro-historical narratives, and the effects of conflict and migration. Al Solh’s approach combines social engagement with a unique blend of political critique and poetic escapism. Rather than following a documentary style, her pieces lean into fictional and at times fantastical realms, using oral histories, interdisciplinary collaborations, and language play to explore intimate stories, especially those of women. These works examine themes of resistance, displacement, loss, and memory with sensitivity and empathy, creating an emotionally resonant body of work that invites viewers to reflect on contemporary challenges faced by marginalized communities.</p><p>Entitled Y’a Hamam Yalla Ma Tnam, Ma Tnam (“Oh Pigeon, Don’t Sleep, Don’t Sleep”), a line from a very popular lullaby in Lebanon and Syria, the exhibition brings together works that have never been shown all at once, creating a unique narrative that explores Al Solh’s deep engagement with micro-histories and political agency. The central axis of the exhibition is provided by Nami Nami Noooom, Yalla Tnaaam (""Sleep, Sleep, Sleep, Let’s Sleep""), a powerful, large-scale installation anchoring the show’s emotional and narrative flow. This work is deeply personal, drawing from Al Solh's childhood during the Lebanese Civil War. As a child coping with sleepless nights amidst the relentless din of bombs going off throughout the city, the artist would create holes in her pyjamas as a distraction from the sounds of war. Her mother once encouraged her to stitch around these holes, transforming the activity into a calming ritual rather than simply mending the clothes. This meditative practice became a lifeline, allowing her to find brief moments of peace amid the ongoing chaos.</p><p>The Middle East’s prolonged conflicts have escalated recently into a profound human tragedy, creating a wound that spans generations and disrupts millions of lives. This relentless cycle of violence has led to unimaginable losses, with countless lives snuffed out, families torn apart, and entire communities living under the constant shadow of fear and grief. Amid the ruins, people grapple with deep trauma that will continue to affect future generations. Mounira Al Solh, deeply impacted by these conflicts, channels her experiences through art, inviting reflection on the need for peace, empathy, and a commitment to justice that honors the rights and dignity of all involved. Through her work, she takes up the urgent call to end suffering and the resolve to foster a future rooted in respectfulness and shared humanity.</p><p><br></p>" itemprop="description" />

Singer, kicks off Serralves Museum’s 2025 exhibition season. Commissioned exclusively for this setting, the exhibition grapples with the dilemmas of the digital era and the systematic tensions that plague contemporary society, as it winds from the museum’s Central Gallery to the lobby.</p><p>Following more than a year of research, Singer leads us on a journey into the emerging digital economies — cryptocurrency being one — while laying bare the alienating volatility and fragmentation of identity at their core.</p><p>Emerging in a haze, in this series of paintings hanging on tubular structures, we see the faces of enigmatic, almost ethereal figures. They are young, their youthfulness frozen in time, bearing the accessories and tropes of a constructed identity – piercings, sunglasses, tinted hair – in portraits of online gamers and crypto-investors. A lonely, silent space is their home, hovering somewhere between two worlds: the real and the digital. The meticulously-staged architecture that surrounds them, reminds us of the characterless interiors of financial institutions, or public offices — impersonal environments where we become disposable pawns in a colossal system.</p><p><br></p>" itemprop="description" />