Galeria Municipal do Porto

On the first Sunday of the exhibition, the curators of ‘Recursions: a cartography of unfinished territories’ invite the public to two guided tours. The first will be led by artist Kiluanji Kia Henda in Portuguese. The second one will be led by Margarida Waco, who, alongside Kia Henda, is curating this collective exhibition.
 

 The artist duo Mariana Caló and Francisco Queimadela will conduct the first visit to the exhibition ‘State of spirit' in person.

The Gallery Talks have brought together people who cross our lives coming from very different directions - from the creative field to science and well-being. Susana Peralta is a regular figure on television and in daily newspapers, and her reflections are fundamental in helping us to reflect on the Portuguese reality through the lens of sciences such as microeconomics, ethics and economic policy.

 

This guided tour of the “Learning to teach, teaching to learn with Elvira Leite” exhibition, led by teacher and curator Lúcia Almeida Matos, will focus on the artist’s painting career, which was strongly influenced by the changes at the School of Fine Arts during the 1960s and 1970s.

If you're between the ages of 16 and 22 and want to take part in the Gallery's activities, visit the art spaces in the city, or attend workshops led by different artists and thinkers, just send an email to galeriamunicipal@agoraporto.pt.

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.

During the interval between the two parts of the ‘Learning to teach, teaching to learn with Elvira Leite’ exhibition, the room will be transformed into ‘The Space In Between’, offering a series of creative and artistic activities suitable for all ages. These workshops have been programmed by Cristina Camargo and will be led by the mediation teams from ping!/GMP, Boa Arts and Porto Municipal Libraries. 

From a dialogue between Elvira Leite and the duo Mariana Caló and Francisco Queimadela, the Acoustic Shell in the Gardens of Palácio de Cristal will serve as a canvas for a mural created by many hands. More information coming soon.

 As part of the 'State of spirit' exhibition, an immersive listening session promoted by Quarto Mundo will take place at the Carlos Alberto Chapel in the gardens of Palácio de Cristal. 

Every month, Fonoteca Municipal do Porto organises an Active Listening session. During these sessions, a guest is challenged to select one or more records from the collection for a shared listening experience. This January, the host will be Angolan musician and writer Kalaf Epalanga, in partnership with the Galeria Municipal do Porto as part of the public programme of the ‘Recursions: a cartography of unfinished territories' exhibition.

The Anti-Racist Handbook for the Arts and Education arose in response to the need to challenge thinking and practices in the fields of art and education. In this session, the UNA - União Negra das Artes collective Black will share with the audience their ongoing process of creating this handbook. Above all, it seeks to be a hopeful, anti-racist and critical resource that builds bridges between art and education.

The seminar "Inside and Outside School: Thinking About Education and Art Based on Elvira Leite" is aimed at teachers and educators. Taking place over one day, it features contributions from Amanda Midori, Cat Martins, Joaquim Azevedo, Maria João Vicente, Matilde Seabra, Milice Ribeiro dos Santos and Sofia Victorino.

To mark the final weekend of the ‘Recursions: a cartography of unfinished territories exhibition, Galeria Municipal do Porto will host a DJ set by Nazar.

Born in Angola but raised in Belgium, Nazar returned to his homeland after the civil war ended in 2002. It was at this point he began music production, making his own unique take on Angola’s Kuduro music, which he calls 'Rough Kuduro'. Now based in Manchester, his musical world centers around the extreme violence, injustice and omnipresence of a repressive state during and after the 27-year Angolan civil war, while exploring hope, resilience and pride in a country torn apart by conflict.

For Aníbal Quijano, “nothing is less rational, finally, than the pretension that a specific cosmic vision of a particular ethnicity should be taken as universal rationality.”

Along the same lines, Joël Vacheron argues that space exploration has universalized a vision of the Earth and the cosmos that is not shared universally. Like the first transatlantic journeys, the invention of the steam engine, and the conquest of the West, the material exploration and exploitation of outer space have always been historically framed in narratives presenting them as a natural expansion led by a minority on behalf of all humankind. By inviting us to “unsee” a selection of images produced in the context of the American space program, this presentation explains why this cosmovision was decisive in the widespread adoption of a worldview that perpetuates coloniality in the postcolonial world.

Joël Vacheron is a sociologist and writer based in Lisbon. He is a senior lecturer and research fellow at the ECAL (Universtiy of art and Design Lausanne / HES-SO) in Lausanne where he teaches visual anthropology and media studies. He is co-founder of the Centre Culturel Afropea and the author of “Cosmovisions : une étude visuelle de l’exploration spatiale” (Métis Presses, 2025)