This exhibition was an initiative of the Department of Artistic Creation and Art Education (ACARTE), 10 years after the death of the filmmaker, poet, playwright and critic Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922 - 1975). Madalena de Azeredo Perdigão, the Director of the ACARTE, created a series of cultural events as an homage to the author.  The initiative arose from a proposal made by the stage director Mário Feliciano to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (FCG), which implied the staging of the author’s play Pílades. The interdisciplinary project took place between September 12 and October 31, 1985 and intended to present Pasolini's multidisciplinary work. To this end, the FCG’s different departments worked closely together. The whole event consisted of an exhibition Pinturas e desenhos de Pier Paolo Pasolini [Paintings and drawings by Pier Paolo Pasolini]; the staging of the Pílades play: directed by Mario Feliciano; a Film Cycle: featuring Pasolini movies from the 60s, curated by João Bénard da Costa; a debate/ colloquium on Pier Paolo Pasolini's Theatrical and Poetic Work and, finally, a symposium, closing the cycle. This event was based on a project of the previous year (1984), held at the Festival d'Automne in Paris, and on another that would be held  in the same year (1985) in Rome, under the title «Pasolini, una Vita Futura» [Pasolini, a future life]. In Portugal, according to Madalena de Azeredo Perdigão, this was a "multidisciplinary action that came to meet one of the most significant aims of the ACARTE" (Pinturas e Desenhos de Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1985).

Altogether, 104 works by Pasolini, from the period between 1941 and 1965, both painting and drawing, were shown. Giuseppe Zigaina played a decisive role in the exhibition’s organization, since he was the curator and the designer of the event. Graziella Chiarcossi, Pasolini's cousin, was also an important element in supporting the research on the artist.

Initially, a bibliographic and photographic exhibition was planned, as a complement to the various events, but it did not materialized.