The Imaginary Collection
Ceramics and Textiles by Teresa Segurado Pavão
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Date
21 Nov 2026 – 15 Mar 2027
- Closed on Tuesday
Location
Calouste Gulbenkian MuseumPricing
- 16,00 – 18,00 €
Included in the Gulbenkian Museum and All-inclusive admission ticket
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The result of an intimate encounter between the collection assembled by Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian and the works of the artist Teresa Pavão, this exhibition brings to life an ‘imaginary collection’ woven together by material, formal and conceptual affinities.
Drawing on a sense of fascination inspired by the Gulbenkian Collection, the exhibition brings together works specially created by the artist for this project, alongside other pieces from her personal archive and other collections. Distributed throughout the Museum, including in the two interior gardens, this extensive set of works bears witness to Teresa Pavão’s deep curiosity with regards to different materials, manufacturing processes, contexts, and the multiple lives of objects, spanning different eras and geographies.
Consisting primarily of ceramic pieces, the formal refinement of the exhibition finds a particular eloquence in restraint, simplicity and purity of form. This set of works is complemented by tapestries and references to textile art, evoking another aspect of Teresa Pavão’s practice. It is no coincidence that ceramics and textiles are also two central areas of the Calouste Gulbenkian Collection, reinforcing the affinities that shape the exhibition.
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Through relationships that alternate between an almost immediate spark of connection and more unexpected associations, the Museum’s artworks find new resonances in Teresa Pavão’s creations. From this encounter emerge some of the defining features of the artist’s work: white clay, fragments both small and large (whether shards of porcelain, bones, buttons or piano keys) and emotions. Although intangible in nature, yet no less present, these emotions take shape in the objects as a memory of those who offered them to the artist, of the places they have been, and of the lives they have touched, giving form to each new creation.
Far from mere juxtaposition or an attempt at mimicry, the exhibition draws on the Gulbenkian Museum’s collection to construct a collection that exists solely through this encounter: an imaginary one made up of parallels, deviations, memories and affection.
