Reopening programme

CAM—Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian will reopen to the public on September 20, 2024 following an extensive reimagining led by acclaimed Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, marking the architect’s first completed project in Portugal. Conceived by British architect Sir Leslie Martin, the original building opened in 1983 to house one of the world’s most significant collections of modern and contemporary Portuguese art. Currently undergoing a significant transformation, CAM is nestled within the verdant grounds of Lisbon’s Gulbenkian Foundation, a multi-disciplinary campus comprised of iconic 1960’s buildings immersed in an 18-acre woodland, the legacy of the prolific collector and philanthropist, Calouste Gulbenkian (1869–1955). Highlights of the opening programme include a major exhibition featuring a site-specific installation by Berlin-based, Portuguese artist Leonor Antunes presented alongside a selection of works by women artists from CAM’s Collection, as well as three days of live arts events free for the public to attend.

CAM will continue to house a major open collection of almost 12,000 artworks spanning paintings, sculptures, installations, drawings, prints, photographs and films by some of the country’s most renowned artists, such as Helena Almeida, Paula Rego and Maria Helena Vieira da Silva. CAM also holds a significant collection of works by international and British artists, including Robert Delaunay, David Hockney and Bridget Riley. Bringing together the modern and the contemporary, CAM plans to explore and revisit segments of its expansive art collection through multiple perspectives.

For CAM’s new iteration, Kengo Kuma’s contemporary transformation seamlessly connects the building with the surrounding gardens and city.

Defined by a 100-metre-long sweeping canopy, composed from ceramic tiles made in Portugal, the architecture and interiors have been conceived by Japanese architecture firm Kengo Kuma Associates. The building’s redesign by Kuma draws from the Engawa, a sheltered walkway typical of Japanese dwellings, considered neither totally inside nor outside. Incorporating this typology, the architecture has been integrated into the surrounding gardens of the Gulbenkian Foundation—a nod to Kuma’s vision for “soft and humane architecture” and in response to CAM’s commitment to establish a greater connection between the building, the garden and the city. Accessed through a new entrance, the  gardens have been extended to create a fluid and dense urban forest conceived by landscape designer Vladimir Djurovic. For CAM’s next chapter, design studio A Practice for Everyday Life has developed its new visual identity, inspired by the organic lines and sheltering nature of the Engawa and the building.

Headlining the opening programme, Leonor Antunes will stage a site-specific installation in CAM’s main gallery space, comprised of a large walkable floor sculpture and a series of sculptures, presented in dialogue with works by women artists selected by Antunes. Titled on the persistent inequality of Leonor’s days, the exhibition aims to question the invisibility of women in the canon of modern art history, such as Sadie Speight, a British architect and designer who contributed to the first architecture plan for CAM conceived in the 1980s. Alongside Antunes’ new work, the project explores the almost unknown or forgotten practices of women artists from CAM’s Collection, from the 1960s to the present day. 

In the new Collection Gallery, Tide Line—inspired by a Hamish Fulton artwork of the same name—evokes the convergence of two currents in the high seas. A two-year long presentation including over 90 works from CAM’s Collection, spanning different disciplines, Tide Line reflects on nature, our inner lives, imposed borders, destruction and revolution.

An exhibition of Portuguese-Brazilian artist Fernando Lemos will explore his relationship with Japan in the 1960s, where the artist was granted a scholarship by the Gulbenkian Foundation to study Japanese calligraphy and learn photography techniques. His drawings and photographs will be displayed alongside works by other artists from the CAM collection and Japanese prints from the Gulbenkian Museum Collection.

Japan will also be present on the opening weekend with a programme of live arts events, some of which are part of the Engawa season of Japanese contemporary art, which CAM inaugurated in July 2023. This includes exhibitions by Go Watanabe and Yasuhiro Morinaga.

CAM will open with a three-day live arts programme and the exhibitions will be free to visit during the first opening month. 

CAM is supported by the following patrons: Vanguard Properties, Brisa, PLMJ, Fundação PLMJ, KPMG, BFF Banking Group, Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, Canon, Corticeira Amorim, Julius Baer, Fundação Ramón Areces and El Corte Inglés.

Team and contributors

Director: Benjamin Weil
Deputy Director: Ana Botella 

Architecture
KKAA—Kengo Kuma Associate Architects (Principal in charge: Kengo Kuma) 
OODA—Oporto Office for Design and Architecture 

Landscape architecture
VDLA—Vladimir Djurovic Landscape Architecture
Traços na Paisagem—Lugar Invisível

Structural engineering
Buro Happold
Quadrante

Visual identity
A Practice for Everyday Life 

Restaurant Head Chef
David Jesus