Festival de l’incertitude

A project developed by the French Delegation of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, curated by Paulo Pires do Vale.

Exhibitions, open workshops, conferences, films: a series of events are organised to reflect upon the importance of uncertainty, the unknown and the role of utopia in our culture, in order to mark the 500 years since the publication of Thomas More’s ground-breaking book.

In the exhibition, uncertainty will initially be considered through Fernando Pessoa’s private library which will be on display, alongside works by Fernando Calhau, Dora Garcia, João Onofre and a new installation by Pierre Leguillon specifically about this library.

A second part will question utopia, uncertainty as a motor for critical community-driven resistance, dissatisfaction with the present state of affairs and passion for the possible.

Artworks and documents from different places and eras will enable the following interrogations: is a culture without utopias possible? What is the relation between art, utopia and politics? In fact isn’t utopos amongst us rather than relegated to some distant land? Don’t utopias become dystopias? Are they paradise lost or to come?

Exhibitions
I. On uncertainty
October 4–November 6

Fernando Pessoa’s private library (in collaboration with Casa Fernando Pessoa, Lisbon)
Pierre Leguillon, after Fernando Pessoa’s library
Works by Fernando Calhau, Dora Garcia and João Onofre

II. On possibility
November 17–December 18

Lara Almarcegui, Joseph Beuys, Robert Bresson, Dora Garcia, Douglas Gordon, Bas Jan Ader, Sister Corita Kent, Thomas More, Constant, Arthur Rimbaud, Nuno Sousa Vieira and Totoya Hokkei

Conferences
Inscription and details here

October 7: Richard Zenith
October 12: Nicolas Giraud
October 14: Oulimata Gueye
October 20: Maria João Mayer Branco
October 21: Claire Nancy
October 26: Franck Leibovici
November 2: Michel Menu
November 9: Federico Nicolao
November 30: Tim Ingold
December 2: Cédric Villani
December 6: Marc Fleurbaey
December 8: Mathieu Copeland
December 9: Alain Touraine
December 10: “Promenade Paris Utopique” with Joaquim Moreno

Film projections
At the Cité internationale des arts, 18 rue de l’Hôtel de Ville, 75004 Paris
Details here

November 3: Filme do Desassossego, João Botelho
November 8: La Terre, Alexandre Dovjenko; La Nature de l’homme, Sylvain Ferrari
November 17: Les bâtisseurs, Jean Epstein; O Nosso Homem, Pedro Costa The City, Ralph Steiner & Willard Van Dyke
November 29: Here is Always Somewhere Else, Rene Daalder; We Have No Art, Baylis Glascock; When Faith Moves Mountains, Francis Alÿs