The project Situation 21 is the result of a collaboration between six galleries in the city of Porto, and will have its first presentation with the collective exhibition “Histórias com amanhã – uma cartografia solidária da relevância das galerias do Porto” (Stories with tomorrow- a supportive cartography of Porto galleries’ relevance), curated by Miguel von Hafe Pérez.
Opening April 15th, 15-20h
Situação 21
Histórias com amanhã – uma cartografia solidária da relevância das galerias do Porto
April 15th until June 5th 2021
Galeria Fernando Santos
“Contemporâneos Extemporâneos”
Curated by Andreia Garcia
Artists: Ana Vidigal, António Olaio, Avelino Sá, Bosco Sodi, Cristina Massena, Cristina Mateus, Daniel Barroca, Filipe Cortez, Hernâni Reis Baptista, João Louro, Jorge Perianes, Luísa Salvador, Mariana Caló e Francisco Queimadela, Gerardo Burmester, Inês Teles, Teresa Esgaio, Pedro Cabrita Reis, Pedro Huet, Rita Senra
Galeria Nuno Centeno
“Os conviventes”
Curated by Pedro de Llano
Artists: Merlin Carpenter, Mauro Cerqueira, Adriano Costa, Ángela de la Cruz, Stephan Dillemuth, Dalila Gonçalves, Alisa Heil, David Lamelas, Gabriel Lima, Fernando José Pereira, Silvestre Pestana, Carolina Pimenta, Josephine Pryde, Blake Rayne, Gretta Sarfaty, André Sousa
Galeria Pedro Oliveira
“We Want Electricity”
Curated by Susana Lourenço Marques
Artists: Carlos Lobo, João Paulo Feliciano, Lee Ranaldo, Luís Palma, Patrícia Almeida, Pedro Magalhães
Galeria Presença
Pontas duplas / Split ends
Curated by Aida Castro
Artists: Helena Almeida / Álvaro Lapa, Mafalda Santos / Gustavo Sumpta, Miguel Palma / Elisa Pône, Diana Geiroto Gonçalves / Carlos Mensil e Colectivo SEM-FIM [Beatriz Sarmento e Yasmine Moradalizadeh] / Noé Sendas
Galeria Quadrado Azul
“Ária do encanto – uma flor que talvez não distinga o céu e a terra”
Curated by Luís Pinto Nunes, Luís Albuquerque Pinho
Artists: Alberto Carneiro, Álvaro Lapa, Ângelo de Sousa, Diana Carvalho, Fernando Lanhas, Francisco Oliveira, Francisco Tropa, Isabel Carvalho, João Marçal, João Pais Filipe, Mariana Caló e Francisco Queimadela, Mariana Barrote, Musa Paradisíaca, Pedro Tropa, Sam Baron, Sara Graça, Zulmiro de Carvalho
KUBIKGALLERY
“Uteropias”
Curated by Samuel Silva
Artists: Catarina Real, Luis Ramos, Pedro Tudela, Salomé Lamas, Samuel Silva, Sérgio Fernandes, Valter Ventura
“Situação is the first moment of an initiative that is to be continued, strengthened and eventually more comprehensive in the future.
Six galleries in the city decided to join forces in this socially and economically challenging situation in order to support the conviction of the inevitability of cultural activity, whatever the circumstances. This is an event that stresses the importance of galleries in their work, as well as the relevance of their action in a prospective sense, by showing openness and curiosity in the context.
The material and institutional support granted to the initiative by the Porto City Council is justly inscribed in the general perception of the quality of the work of these cultural agents, as well as in their decisive action in the historical reconfiguration of the panorama in the last three decades (something that the exhibition promoted recently by the Municipal Gallery, “Que horas são que horas:uma galeria de histórias” put in evidence).
In addition to the primordial connection with the artists they represent and exhibit, art galleries are cultural producers that involve a myriad of professionals in their activity: curators, translators, editors, transporters, sound and image technicians, photographers, framers, designers, among others. They are, therefore, engines of a local and national economy that is behind the simple exhibition of works of art.
In addition, they function as a central element in the continuing pedagogy of contemporary art. Parallel to the initial activity of the Serralves Foundation, in the nineties of the last century, it was the city’s galleries that allowed the public to have contact with a series of exhibitions and international artists. This factor was to be decisive in the creation of a critical mass that consolidated the idea of a cosmopolitanism that the city today is capable of demonstrating.
Many of the public and private collections owe a significant part of their essence to the offer that the city’s galleries have been able to leverage in a market, despite all, incipient and strangely volatile.
This remains a major challenge: the recovery of a fabric of collectors that has been stronger in the past, but that wants to be rejuvenated and more diverse. If, on the one hand, it is necessary to articulate strategies to resist the shift in importance, in this sector, from North to South, it is also urgent to think incisively about a paradigm shift that we are witnessing today, namely the attraction that auctioneers have on collectors in a context of increasing internationalization and digitalization of the market.
Galleries are engines of innovation, production and creativity. If in the past there was a notion that the gallery’s work was limited to fetching works already done from the artists’ studios, it should be noted that most of the new production by contemporary artists happens precisely because the galleries allow it. This point is very important, because nowadays it seems that only institutional orders lead to the production of new works of some breath, when many exhibitions in the gallery context point exactly in this direction.
Galleries are also one of the most decisive agents for the internationalization of national artists: the continued presence at fairs abroad was, and will continue to be, hoping that economic conditions will allow it, a crucial element in this increased visibility. As a curator invited by the group of six gallery owners of this first edition of Situação, I was asked to extend the invitation to six curators to be responsible for the projects in each of the galleries. The invitation presupposed a work that not only integrated the artists from each of the galleries, but also incorporated other authors (preferably from the city).
Not wanting to replace future judgments, I couldn’t be more satisfied with the way the responses were articulated for each of the galleries: the bet on a fruitful dialogue with generationally distant authors, radiates the richness from which the story feeds, from which they feed these stories with tomorrow, with the galleries of our city as protagonists.
Situação happens with a substantial delay compared to the predicted date due to the pandemic condition that we currently live. But it happens! May this be a sign that an entire sector will rise from the difficult conditions to which it is subject and that it will continue, with even greater awareness and if possible, of the importance it holds in the well-being and civic empowerment in contemporary society. Culture is not accessory and disposable. Rather, it is a guarantor of the future, of commitment to worldviews that make it more complex, dense and habitable. We need artists to help us live with this contemporary complexity. And, by extension, we need one of their houses, the galleries, to give them visibility. “
Miguel von Hafe Pérez — curator of Situação 21