The exhibition Hands over the City presents a group of works by Portuguese and international artists represented in the Serralves Collection who have turned their attention to contemporary urban reality, investigating physical, economic, social, and cultural processes that shape life in the city.

The city is, by definition, a place of concentration – of people, resources, infrastructures, and services. It is a place of assembly and confrontation, where democracy is born and put to the test. Throughout history, the city has been the setting for countless social and cultural movements and fertile ground for artistic creation, inspiring the work of writers, musicians, filmmakers, and visual artists alike. At a time when Portugal celebrates 50 years of democracy and crowds take to the street to demand the right to housing, Hands over the City showcases a diverse set of artistic practices developed within an increasingly urban society.

Specifically developed for the four campuses of Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP), Hands over the City includes a group exhibition at the Lisbon Campus and individual presentations dedicated to the work of E.M. de Melo e Castro, Gordon Matta Clark and Pedro Barateiro at the Regional Centres of Braga, Viseu, and Porto, respectively.

The artists represented in the show portray the city and intervene in the streets, evoke the city’s visual landscape and reflect on urban development processes, recover discarded objects and materials, and share creative agency with inhabitants and passers-by, exploring different aspects of this complex ecosystem. Comprising drawing, collage, sculpture, and photograph, as well as street posters, publications, sound and video works, Hands over the City brings together a series of artworks from the late 1960s until the present day, spanning the period covered by the Serralves Collection.

This exhibition, curated by Joana Valsassina, is part of the Serralves Collection Touring Exhibition Programme, which aims to make the Foundation’s collection accessible to different audiences across the country.

Production: Fundação de Serralves — Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto

EXHIBITION DATES AND VENUES

Lisbon (Headquarters)

23.01 — 07.04.24

Gallery Fundação Amélia de Mello, Library Building, Lisbon

Braga Regional Centre

06.02 — 07.04.24

Library Pe. Júlio Fragata, SJ, Praça da Faculdade, Braga

Braga Regional Centre

28.02 — 24.06.24

Library D. José Pedro da Silva, Estrada da Circunvalação, Viseu

Braga Regional Centre

29.02 — 24.06.24

Hall of Central Building, R. de Diogo Botelho, Porto