Tomás Saraceno, Eco-Visionaries, Stefan Sagmeister and much more at MAAT in 2018
At MAAT, 2018 begins with the February openings of the following exhibitions: Supergood – Talks with Ernesto de Sousa, based on the transversal work by one of the most relevant figures in 20th-century Portuguese avant-garde, and Welcome to the City of Fear, which puts together a selection of works of painting, drawing and video from João Fonte Santa’s recent production.
In March, Tomás Saraceno will take over MAAT’s Oval Gallery with a site-specific installation produced within the remit of one of the artist’s scientific research projects, Aerocene, describing a future in which humans will live in solar- and wind-powered aerial cities; in MAAT’s Project Room, Miguel Palma exhibits A-Z, a new installation consisting of a vast selection of works on paper, completed over the course of the last two decades.
The Planet and Happiness
The way we see and live the planet will be the main theme for the year’s first semester, not only with Tomás Saraceno’s exhibition, but even more so with MAAT’s second big “manifesto-exhibition” – Eco-Visionaries: Art, Architecture and New Media after the Anthropocene, planned for May. In collaboration with several European museums, the Eco-Visionaries project is centred on art and architecture practices that propose critical and creative visions vis-à-vis the environmental transformations which affect our planet. With contributions from over 35 artists and architects, the exhibition is the result of collaborative work with museums Bild Museet (Sweden), Hek (Switzerland) and Laboral (Spain).
Also in May, Stefan Sagmeister, the internationally-acclaimed Austrian designer, brings his exhibition Happy Show to MAAT, one of his most iconic projects which is the result of intense research about the concept of happiness. What is happiness? How to find it? And what do we really do to be happy?
Still on this first semester, MAAT also presents exhibitions by Susana Mendes Silva, American artist Gary Hill and artist Ângela Ferreira.
In the second semester – during which the museum will celebrate its second anniversary, on 5 October –, MAAT opens to the public exhibitions by André Príncipe, a special commission by Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata, and a new edition of Artists’ Film International, a programme founded in 2008 by the Whitechapel Gallery, and which currently gathers 16 institutions all over the world.
João Louro and Haus Wittgenstein will complete this year’s programme.
Germinal: The Opening of Pedro Cabrita Reis’ Art Collection
2018 will be defined by the first presentation of Pedro Cabrita Reis’ Art Collection, acquired in 2015 by the EDP Foundation. With the opening scheduled for March, the exhibition titled Germinal will be presented within the remit of Porto Municipal Gallery’s programme, of which the EDP Foundation is the sole patron. Germinal will be accompanied by Pedro Cabrita Reis himself, with Pedro Gadanho and Ana Anacleto as curators. This overview of one of the most important branches of EDP Foundation’s Art Collection will be transferred to MAAT at the end of June 2018.
