Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (CAM) presents its 2023 program.
On July 20, 2023, CAM will mark its 40th anniversary by launching a Japanese Contemporary Art Season encompassing visual and performance works. On the first anniversary of her death, June 8, a unique tribute to Paula Rego will be held.
CAM will also present Histórias de uma Coleço (Histories of a Collection), a new viewpoint on its Modern and Contemporary Art collection, as well as Gris, vide, cris (Grey, void, cries), an encounter between the works of Rui Chafes and Alberto Giacometti. A thorough public program will also be developed throughout the year at the Gulbenkian Foundation and other locations throughout town.
Histories of a Collection. Modern and Contemporary Art at Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Headquarters—Main Gallery
May 5–September 25, 2023
Curators: Ana Vasconcelos, Leonor Nazaré, Patrícia Rosas, Rita Fabiana
The Gulbenkian Foundation’s history and commitment to the support of artists and the distribution of art in Portugal have been critical to its collection of Modern and Contemporary Art. The CAM Collection, which has developed enormously over the previous 65 years as a result of contacts, convergences, ruptures, and aesthetic interactions, is the outcome of encounters, convergences, ruptures, and aesthetic relationships. The exhibition analyzes the numerous historical threads that brought together the collection of works that comprise the Foundation’s holding and ponders how a collection’s identity is established and how it can evolve over time. It is accompanied with a catalogue with new essays, as well as a parallel program that tries to reflect on the Collection and the many modes of collecting.
Homage to Paula Rego
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Headquarters
June 8 June–July 24
Curator: Helena de Freitas
On the first anniversary of Paula Rego’s death (June 8, 2022), CAM pays tribute to one of Portugal’s most internationally recognized artists by displaying two of its most recent acquisitions, Angel and Turkish Bath, in the hall of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Headquarters. With the acquisition of these works, the Foundation becomes the private institution with the most extensive and significant collection of the artist’s oeuvre, totaling 37 pieces of painting, drawing, and printmaking.
Rui Chafes and Alberto Giacometti. Gris, vide, cris
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Headquarters—Lower Gallery
May 19–September 25, 2023
Curator: Helena de Freitas
This exhibition brings together two artists who are separated in time, place, and the form of their sculptures. Rui Chafes was born in 1966, the same year Alberto Giacometti died. Despite the absence of any biographical or historical details linking them, the juxtaposition of their works creates an encounter that deepens our comprehension of them. Indeed, both have attempted to reach incorporeality and transcendence, as well as to express the invisible, albeit in opposite ways: Giacometti through exasperated de-materialisation, and Chafes through challenging the limits of iron and imponderability.
Chafes created new pieces in response to specific works by Alberto Giacometti that he selected with the curator. He also cooperated with José Neves to develop a sensory experience in which stillness and loneliness came to dominate. This exhibition debuted in Paris in 2018 at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Paris Delegation. A pamphlet co-published with La Fabrica will accompany this exhibition.
Japanese Contemporary Art Season
Various sites at Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and in Lisbon
July 2023; September 2023; November 2023
Curator: Emmanuelle de Montgazon
A Japanese Season brings to Lisbon works by Japanese visual and performing artists, poets, and philosophers, many of whom will be presenting their work in Europe for the first time, based on the architectural concept of the engawa—a crucial aspect that characterizes Kengo Kuma’s remodelling of the CAM building. There will also be numerous new items.
Chapter 1: 40th anniversary of CAM
[mé], Masayume (2021)
Various locations in the city of Lisbon
July 21–23, 2023
[mé] is a three-person art collective led by Haruka Kojin, Kenji Minamigawa, and Hirofumi Masui. Masayume, which debuted in Tokyo in 2021, consists of a gigantic balloon flying over the metropolitan landscape formed as the face of an individual whose photograph was randomly selected from a database. Its towering presence reflects ideas about monitoring and anonymity.
Ryoji Ikeda, 100 Cymbals (2019) / John Cage/Ryoji Ikeda, But what about the noise of crumpling paper (1985/2021)
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Headquarters—Grand Auditorium
July 21, 2023
100 Cymbals by Ryoji Ikeda is a sound installation performed by a group of ten percussionists. It honors John Cage and his connection to Japanese culture and artists, particularly Toru Takemitsu. This piece’s composition mimics the work of the American composer, emphasizing the possibilities of cymbals through a path between noise and harmonic resonance.
Lei Saito, Cuisine Existentielle
Gulbenkian Garden
July 23, 2023
Workshop with Portuguese chef Leopoldo Calhau on July 20.
Lei Saito’s Cuisine Existentielle (Existential Cuisine) is a continuing series of food landscapes created by the artist since the beginning of her career. Her compositions are a synthesis of culinary traditions, ages, and flavors that, when combined, generate a new story that crystallizes a sensuous experience, a new and shared ambiance. Her audience is asked to join in the eating of an evolving and finally disappearing banquet/landscape.
Chapter 2: Fluxus
Selection of works curated by Mieko Shiomi and a new work by the artist.
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Headquarters—Grand Auditorium, Auditoriums 2 and 3, Rooms 1 and 2
September 8, 9 and 10, 2023
Mieko Shiomi is a prominent artist, composer, and performer who helped shape Fluxus and co-founded the experimental music group Group Ongaku. She is well-known for her research into the nature and boundaries of sound, music, and auditory experiences. CAM has commissioned a new work, which will be performed in Lisbon with certain historical pieces that have never been staged in Portugal before.
Ami Yamasaki & Christian Marclay, Manga Scroll / Ami Yamasaki, solo / Ami Yamasaki with Ko Ishikawa, duet
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Headquarters—Grand Auditorium, Auditoriums 2 and 3 and Gulbenkian Garden
September 8, 9 and 10, 2023
Ami Yamazaki will present Manga Scroll by Christian Marclay, one of the most well-known sound and visual artists. Marclay developed this performance for the ‘discovered in Odawara’ event, which will take place in October 2021 at the Odawara Foundation in Japan. Yamazaki will also sing a duet with Ko Ishikawa as well as a solo.
Chapter 3: The CAM as an engawa for the city of Lisbon
Chim Pom from Smappa! Group, new site-specific work
Location to be announced
November 7–27, 2023 (to be confirmed)
Chim Pom (CPfSG) will create a new project in Lisbon based on their research into the city and interactions with experts in history and seismology, as well as local immigrant populations, particularly from Cape Verde. This new piece will reflect on the urban transformation caused by gentrification, as well as a real or imagined shared history between Portugal and Japan through the memory of the 1755 earthquake.
About Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (CAM)
CAM seeks to unleash the transformative power of art in order to facilitate personal and societal change. It brings together an extensive collection of Modern and Modern art as well as the most cutting-edge forms of contemporary cultural production in all media under one roof. Its edifice, built by Sir Leslie Martin and opened in 1983, is undergoing a substantial refurbishment by Kengo Kuma. It is expected to reopen to the public in late 2024. Meanwhile, its programming is held at various locations on the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s campus, including the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum and the Foundation’s Headquarters and Garden, as well as across the city of Lisbon via its multidimensional CAM em Movimento (CAM in Motion) project.
Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian
Rua Doutor Nicolau Bettencourt
1050-078 Lisbon
Portugal
T +351 21782300
[email protected]
