In addition to its music program, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is to begin systematically exhibiting its works of art throughout the length and breadth of Portugal so as to broaden public access to the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum collections. Through to 2020, the following six locations are to host works from the Museum’s collections: Bragança, Sabrosa, Castelo Branco, Portimão, Sines and Tavira.
Opening on 1 December, Bragança and Sabrosa are hosting a broad selection of works gathered under the title Body and Landscape. The displays, exhibited in the Graça Morais Centre of Contemporary Art and in Espaço Miguel Torga respectively, bring together works of art from the Modern Collection with pieces personally acquired by Calouste Gulbenkian from origins as distinct as Syria, Turkey and Japan.

José de Almada Negreiros, Paula Rego, Alberto Carneiro, Ana Vidigal, António Areal, Antony Gormley, Costa Pinheiro, Helena Almeida, João Queiroz, Lourdes Castro, Manuel Botelho, Mário Eloy, Menez, Miguel Palma, Rui Chafes, Stanislas Lépine and Thomas Weinberger are among the Modern Collection artists represented in these exhibitions.

Jorge da Costa, director of the Centre of Contemporary Art, emphasised the long relationship established with the Foundation that he said “evoked the emblematic touring library program”, which enabled other publics, from the north to the south of the country, to gain access to the Gulbenkian Museum. Jorge da Costa, who took on the curating of this exhibition, further highlighted the “dialogue established between a significant number of museums”, capable of “enabling future networked projects”. The curator also stressed the opportunity provided to the public in this region “that recognises the Gulbenkian brand”, to enter into contact with one of the “most systematic collections of modern and contemporary works of Portuguese art” as well as being “one of the most important of all private international art collections.”

On 8 December, the Museum of Portimão first presents the exhibition Places, Landscapes, Travels and similarly based on a most careful selection of works from the Gulbenkian Museum collections. The director, José Gameiro, speaks of an “inspirational partnership” also “enabling a desired and stimulating dialogue among cultural institutions”. He additionally applauded the path of “continued decentralisation” undertaken by the Gulbenkian Foundation while also referring to the “praiseworthy co-curatorship” launched by this exhibition.

Choir and Orchestra on the road

The Gulbenkian Orchestra is also embarking on a program of tours that shall take it to the Caldas da Rainha Cultural Centre and the Águeda Art Centre at the beginning of next year (24 and 25 January). The concerts, featuring works by Mendelssohn and Ravel, count on a trio of female performers led by the conductor Tianyi Lu with the violinist Carolin Widmann and the pianist Varvara.

At the beginning of summer, under the charge of its lead conductor, Lorenzo Viotti, the Gulbenkian Orchestra is staging two concerts in Oporto with the first in the Casa da Música (19 June) and the second against the magnificent backdrop of the Convent of São Francisco (20 June). This program includes the Concert for Violin and Orchestra no. 2 by Sergei Prokofiev, played by Leticia Moreno, and Tchaikovsky’s 5^th Symphony.

In turn, the Gulbenkian Choir will be in Spain at the beginning of December for two acapella concerts in the Juan March Foundation in Madrid (5^th), and the Sacra Capilla del Salvador, in Úbeda (6^th). The program, dedicated to the Virgin Mary inspired devotional music from the golden age of the Iberian Cinquecento period, was first performed last month in the Foundation’s Grand Auditorium.

On 25 and 26 of next April, the Gulbenkian Choir teams up with the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra to perform La Damnation de Faust by Hector Berlioz. The recitals of this “dramatic legend”, to quote the composer himself, take place in the Bordeaux Palais de la Musique et des Congrès, drawing on a cast made up of Joyce DiDonato, Michael Spyres, Alexandre Duhamel and Nicolas Courjal. Finally, on 21 June, the Choir is performing in Tenerife, in the Adán Martin Auditorium, with its interpretation of A German Requiem by Johannes Brahms, a work that has recently been incorporated into the choir’s repertoire. The Choir accompanies the local Symphony Orchestra conducted by Antonio Méndez.

Complete exhibition program through to 2020

Graça Morais Centre of Contemporary Art, Bragança and Espaço Miguel Torga, Sabrosa (1 December 2018-24 March 2019)
Portimão Museum (8 December 2018-3 March 2019)
Sines Centre of Arts (16 March-9 June 2019)
Castelo Branco Centre of Contempory Culture (6 April-28 July 2019)
Palace of Galeria, Tavira (23 November 2019-23 February 2020)

Gulbenkian Itinerante Full Program