Cultural Institutions in Transition

22 April Monday

A day of gatherings centred around talks, workshops and other practices to jointly debate, imagine and experiment new institutional models and new ways of (co)existing in the face of the transformations of the contemporary world.

Acknowledging that most cultural institutions today are based on hegemonic traditions and perpetuate structures and operating logics that are not very agile in the face of the changes in the contemporary world, what new models can we imagine/create?

The Black Lives Matter and #metoo movements, the growing political polarisation in the fight for social, ecological and intersectional justice, the consequences of the pandemic and the conflicts that are multiplying on a global scale have challenged various communities (artistic, academic, political, citizens) to reflect on how to “institute” in a different way and how to find answers which translate into transformative actions and practices. These practices extend a moment of utopia into the realm of the possible, in a present that is in continuous reinvention and is also a way of actualising the future.

In the year that marks the 40^th anniversary of the creation of  ACARTE – Service for Animation, Artistic Creation and Art Education, and celebrates the values that mobilised its multidisciplinary programme in a context of deepening democracy in Portugal, these gatherings bring together a diverse group of voices. Based on their personal experiences – between the rural and the urban, the encyclopedic museum and the art biennial, between trans-historical dialogue and collective pedagogies – Hicham Khalidi, Raphael Fonseca, Sepake Angiama and the artist duo Landra will debate recent examples of arts networks, practices and institutions that seek new ways of thinking, working, (co)existing and being relevant in contemporary societies.

Curators 
Luísa Santos, Rita Fabiana e Sofia Victorino

The Gulbenkian Art Library suggests a selection of titles from its collection available for free consultation in the Art Library’s Reading Room.

This book exhibition aims to be a space for sharing and an invitation to discover, research and critically reflect, based on writing materials that analyse and question the transformations in the arts and art institutions in the contemporary world.