Galeria Municipal do Porto

Sara Barros Leitão will be the guest at April's Gallery Talks.

Born in Porto in 1990, Sara Barros Leitão is an actress, director and playwright who works regularly in television, film and theatre. An actress, director and playwright, she works regularly in television, film and theatre. She has frequently appeared as an actress at the São João National Theatre and the D. Maria II National Theatre (TNDMII) in recent years, working with directors such as Nuno Carinhas and Tiago Rodrigues. As a director and creator, her notable productions include the concert performances of Gil Vicente’s Trilogia das Barcas (2018) and William Shakespeare’s King Lear (2019), co-produced by the CCB and Toy Ensemble; Teoria das Três Idades (2018), co-produced by the Teatro Experimental do Porto and the Teatro Municipal do Porto and voted one of the shows of the year by Público; Todos os dias me sujo de coisas eternas (2019), based on research into Porto’s place names and presented as part of the Cultura em Expansão project; and Monólogo de uma mulher chamada Maria com a sua patroa (2020), voted one of the shows of the year by Público, named Best Show in the City of Lisbon by Time Out magazine and nominated for Best Show at the 2022 Golden Globes. Best Performed Portuguese Text at the SPA Awards (Portuguese Society of Authors). She won the first TNDMII/AGEAS Revelation Award. She was guest artistic director at Teatro Oficina. In 2020, she founded the artistic collective Cassandra, which she directs, to develop her projects.

Find out more about the three exhibitions on display at GMP by joining a guided tour led by the GMP team. 

In this public session, Inês Nadais, culture editor at Público, will discuss the social impact within and beyond communities, drawing on the work of the Arena Ensemble.

This will be the final session of the programme, in which participants will give a public presentation of their work carried out over the four days of the workshop.

In 2026, Pia Camil (Mexico City, 1980) will be the guest artist invited to install in the outdoor courtyard of Galeria Municipal. A large-scale textile installation designed specifically for the context of the city of Porto will be created from second-hand clothing collected in dialogue with the city's population. This installation will create a place for the public to observe and inhabit. Reflecting Pia Camil's research into collaborative practices, the installation sits at the crossroads between artwork and playful space. It addresses themes such as the world of the textile industry and how it functions as a repository of cultural information and a portrait of collective consciousness.

 As part of the celebrations for International Museum Day, GMP invites the public to explore its exhibitions further through a guided tour of the projects currently on display: Sea Skin by Eunice Pais; Commissions #1, by Mauro Cerqueira, Joana Escoval, Sara Graça, Catarina Miranda and Mariya Nesvyetaylo; Collapse, by Silvestre Pestana; and the new outdoor installation, Sharing, by Pia Camil.

Find out more about the three exhibitions on display at GMP and the new outdoor installation, by joining a guided tour led by the GMP team. 

Lydia Ourahmane (1992, Saïda, Algeria) is a conceptual artist. Her practice includes installations, sculptures, moving images, and sound works designed to engage audiences and communities, creating situations that transcend the walls of the institution while negotiating the terms within it. At Galeria Municipal, she will present a new version of the installation Per Voce (2025), developed in collaboration with her sister Sarah Ourahmane, a composer and musician. The work consists of a score composed based on the architecture and acoustics of the exhibition hall, to be performed by visually impaired singers.

For the first time in Portugal, Lithuanian artist Augustas Serapinas (1990, Vilnius, Lithuania) is presenting a large-scale installation that transforms the gallery space into a hybrid of a gym and a design studio. Cultivating both body and mind, the dumbbells of the bodybuilding machines are transformed into fragments of classical sculptures, referencing everything from the city of Porto to the worlds of art history and philosophy. At the intersection of objects and bodies that evoke the origins of Western society, the exhibition humorously echoes the motto "mens sana in corpore sano".

Galeria Municipal do Porto is dedicating an exhibition and a publication to the life and work of artist Isabel Carvalho (1977, Porto). With an artistic career spanning more than twenty-five years, her practice crosses the visual arts, literature and public life in many different ways, ranging from independent book publishing to drawing, painting, sculpture, performance and music. This exhibition marks a decisive period in the artist's career.

Working together since 2009, artists Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme are among the most prominent contemporary artists experimenting with sound and image. Combining Abbas's experience in sound and music production with Abou-Rahme's background in cinema, the pair produce works of image and movement resulting in totally immersive environments. They subvert archives, expanding the boundaries of their content to challenge linear narratives and discourses. The duo creates porous spaces, understanding installation as a space that is simultaneously fictional and documentary, where one can investigate and question social and political conditions of the past.

Leonor Parda (1986, Porto) is a visual artist, post-romantic poet, existential experimentalist and dreamer who believes in art as a poetic means of inhabiting the world. In her exhibition at Galeria Municipal do Porto, she continues to explore themes that characterise her work, such as the interactions between power dynamics, social structures and the human condition. She observes how these themes manifest in bodies, objects and identities through a multidisciplinary proposal combining sculpture, visuals and sound recordings.

To participate in the Exodus, all interested groups can register through the email galeriamunicipal@agoraporto.pt.

 To participate in the Visitas-Pavão, all interested groups can register through the email galeriamunicipal@agoraporto.pt.