Rua D. Manuel II (Jardins do Palácio de Cristal)
4050-346 Porto
Portugal
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 10am–6pm
T +351 22 507 3305
galeriamunicipal@agoraporto.pt
Former chief curator at Kiasma—National Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, João Laia now assumes his new role in Portugal. The position includes the programming and management of Galeria Municipal do Porto, the Fonoteca Municipal do Porto, the support platform for contemporary artistic practice Pláka—which encompasses the revitalisation of the contemporary art section of the Municipal Art Collection, among other initiatives—, as well as the coordination of other cultural projects that will be carried out under the municipal company Ágora—Cultura e Desporto do Porto.
With a background in social sciences, film theory and contemporary art, João Laia was nominated as the chief curator at Kiasma, in 2019. Together with Valentinas Klimašauskas, he also curated the 14th edition of the Baltic Triennial, titled The Endless Frontier, at CAC—Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius, in 2021. Laia and Klimašauskas will team up again to present the artist duo Pakui Hardware at the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024.
Curator of the 12th edition of GIBCA—Gothenburg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, which took place in 2023 around the city of Gothenburg, Sweden, João Laia’s extensive curatorial experience includes collaborations with Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; La Casa Encendida, Madrid; MACBA—Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona; MAAT—Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon; Moscow Young Art Biennial, MMOMA, Moscow; Whitechapel Gallery, London; and the Contemporary Art Biennial Sesc_Videobrasil, São Paulo.
In Porto, Laia presented projects such as a polyphonic wave of concrete elements that flow through the air, at ARTES Mota Galiza, in 2014, or Hybridize or Disappear, at the City Hall in 2015 and collaborated with Galeria Municipal do Porto on several occasions, curating exhibitions like 10000 years later between Venus and Mars, in 2017, the first edition of the Paulo Cunha e Silva Prize, in 2018—for which he was also a member of the jury—and Máscaras (Masks), in 2020.
Among other publications, Laia edited the books Living Encounters with Kiasma/Mousse, in 2022, and A Multiple Community, with Sesc, in 2018 and published in magazines such as Art Monthly, Flash Art, frieze, Mousse, Spike and Terremoto.
Among exhibitions, film screenings, performances and public programmes, Laia has a wide range of experience with artistic practices from different generations, media and geographies that have sought to expand traditional formats, questioning established histories and experimenting alternative narratives.
For further enquiries, please contact
Tiago Dias dos Santos, tiagosantos [at] agoraporto.pt
Hernâni Baptista, hernanibatista [at] agoraporto.pt
