Fall programme at MAAT: five new exhibitions
The September and October programme features five new exhibitions at the MAAT Gallery, MAAT Central and MAAT Garden.
In September, Black Ancient Futures brings to Portugal African artists and/or members of the vast African diaspora reimagining a past, a present and a future for the black artistic experience in a transcontinental reality, speculating on the possibility of a universe of spaces, actions and utopian dreams of abundance and well-being changing the hierarchies and geographies of contemporary creation.
The same day sees the opening of an exhibition by William Klein, one of the most influential photographers of the second half of the 20th century. It will be the first anthological exhibition on the European continent after his death in 2022 and covers the various strands of his work - street photography, fashion, cinema, painting and graphic design. Also in September, INVERTED ON US opens, an exhibition featuring new works in painting, photography and installation by Portuguese artist Catarina Dias.
Two important exhibitions in this year's programme open at the end of October. The Oval Gallery will present more than 500 paintings by Vivian Suter, a Swiss-Argentine artist who has explored the possibilities of painting, particularly in its relationship with nature. Next door, in Gallery 2, several light installations will be exhibited by British artist Anthony McCall, a seminal figure since the 1970s in the field of the intersections between experimental film, sculpture and drawing.
By bringing exhibitions by widely recognised artists to the Portuguese public for the first time, these proposals reinforce MAAT on the international art scene, and as an institution that promotes meetings and reflections on the daily challenges of current criticism and thought. It should be noted that after MAAT, Vivian Suter's exhibition will be presented in the summer of 2025 at the Palais Tokyo in Paris, an institution that has associated itself with the project conceived by MAAT.
Black Ancient Futures | Curators: João Pinharanda and Camila Maissune | MAAT Central, MAAT Gallery, MAAT Gardens | 18/09/2024–17/03/2025 | With Baloji, April Bey, Jeannette Ehlers, Lungiswa Gqunta, Evan Ifekoya, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Gabriel Massan, Jota Mombaça, Sandra Mujinga, Tabita Rezaire: The exhibition features work by artists, some of them presented for the first time in Portugal, who employ different languages to propose a wide range of alternative narratives and landscapes that contest the dominant panorama of the contemporary arts. The alternative potential underpinning the works presented in this exhibition allows us to speculate on the possibility of a universe of utopian spaces favourable to changes in perspective, both on racial and historical justice and on the hierarchy and geography of contemporary creation. The exhibition will take place in MAAT's two buildings, MAAT Central and MAAT Gallery, and the Gardens.
William Klein – The whole world is a stage | Curator: David Campany | MAAT Central | 18/09/2024–03/02/2025: Recognised as one of the most influential photographers of the second half of the 20th century, this is the first major exhibition of the work of William Klein (1926-2022) on the European continent since his death. Covering various aspects of his work through around 200 works - street photography, fashion, cinema, editorial production - and taking us to major cities such as New York, Paris, Rome, Moscow and Tokyo, the exhibition emphasises the performative dimension of the American photographer, highlighting the unique way in which he interacted with his models and subjects. The exhibition is curated by David Campany, one of the most renowned contemporary researchers in the field of photography.
Catarina Dias – INVERTED ON US | Curator: Filipa Correia de Sousa | MAAT Central | 18/9/2024 - 17/3/2025: Since the beginning of her creative career, Catarina Dias (b. 1979) has developed an oeuvre centred on the practice of drawing and its plastic and conceptual derivations, often in combination with photography and sculpture. In INVERTED ON US, the artist continues her work of questioning the enigma of visibility: the mystery of images and words, their transparencies and dissimilarities, analogies and metamorphoses, the clear reflections and tacit echoes, mirrors and ghosts that give them existence.
Anthony McCall – Rooms | Curator: Sérgio Mah | MAAT Gallery | 30/10/2024–17/03/2025: Since his seminal work Line Describing a Cone (1973), Anthony McCall (b. 1946) has become one of the leading figures in the use of light as an artistic medium and theme. The exhibition at MAAT brings together several of his Solid Light Works, creating a large immersive space in which elements of drawing, film and sculpture intersect. This is the artist's first solo exhibition in Portugal. This exhibition follows the Tate Modern show dedicated to his work (London, until 27 April 2025).
Vivian Suter – Disco | Curador: Sérgio Mah | MAAT Gallery (Galeria Oval) | 30/10/2024–17/03/2025: Over the last four decades, Swiss-Argentine painter Vivian Suter (b. 1949) has been building a monumental body of work in Panajachel in the Guatemalan interior. Her abstract paintings are the result of a daily, physical, and emotional relationship with the materials and contingencies of nature in the place where she lives and works. Rain, earth, humidity, and traces of animals often inhabit her canvases, expressing the close interaction between the artist and the ecosystem in which the work is generated. This show comes after several moments of great international critical acclaim following her participation in Documenta 14 and her exhibitions at the Reina Sofia National Museum in Madrid and the Vienna Secession. This exhibition at MAAT will be presented at the Palais de Tokyo in the summer of 2025, in an exhibition co-organised between the two institutions.
